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THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 
ET.  HON.  DAVID  LLOYD  GEORGE 


THE 

GREAT  CRUSADE 

Extracts  from  Speeches  Delivered  During  the  War 
BY  THE  RT.  HON. 

DAVID  LLOYD  GEORGE,  M.P. 

ARRANGED  BT 

F.  L.  STEVENSON,  C.B.E.,  BJ^.  (Lond.) 


NEW  ^%SW   YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1918, 
By  George  H.  Doran  Campany 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


PREFACE 

These  speeches  are  not  republished  on  my  own 
initiative,  but  in  response  to  many  requests.  If, 
however,  my  speeches  in  book  form  can  help  to 
bring  home  to  their  readers  the  gravity  of  the 
crisis  in  which  the  democracies  of  the  world  are 
placed,  I  am  glad  that  they  should  be  republished 
even  though  I  have  not  had  time  to  re-read  or 
revise  them  in  any  way.  I  have  never  believed 
that  the  war  would  be  a  short  war,  or  that  in  some 
mysterious  way,  by  negotiation  or  compromise, 
we  could  free  Europe  from  the  malignant  military 
autocracy  which  is  endeavouring  to  trample  it 
into  submission  and  moral  death.  I  have  always 
believed  that  the  machine  which  has  established 
its  despotic  control  over  the  minds  and  bodies  of 
its  own  victims,  and  then  organised  and  driven 
them  to  slaughter  in  order  to  extend  that  control 
over  the  rest  of  the  world,  would  only  be  de- 
stroyed if  the  free  peoples  proved  themselves 
strong  and  steadfast  enough  to  defeat  its  attempt 
in  arms.  The  events  of  the  last  few  weeks  must 
have  made  it  plain  to  every  thinking  man  that 
there  is  no  longer  room  for  compromise  between 
the  ideals  for  which  we  and  our  enemies  stand. 
Democracy  and  autocracy  have  come  to  death 


vi  BREFACE 

grips.  One  or  the  other  will  fasten  its  hold  on 
mankind.  It  is  a  clear  realisation  of  this  issue 
which  will  be  our  strength  in  the  trials  still  to 
come. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  freedom  will  triumph.  But 
whether  it  will  triumph  soon  or  late,  after  a  final 
supreme  effort  in  the  next  few  months  or  a  long 
jdrawn  agony,  depends  on  the  vigour  and  self-sac- 
rifice with  which  the  children  of  liberty,  and  espe- 
cially those  behind  the  lines,  dedicate  themselves 
to  the  struggle.  There  is  no  time  for  ease  or 
delay  or  debate.  The  call  is  imperative.  The 
choice  is  clear.  It  is  for  each  citizen  to  do  his 
part. 

D.  Lloyd  Geoegb. 


CONTENTS 


Minister  of  Munitions.  delivered  at  page 

Munitions:        Progress  of      House  of  Commons, 
British  Production       ....      Dec.  20th,  1915.  11 

A  Word  to  the  Munition      Ponder's  End, 

Workers  Feb.  Srd,  1916.  19 

Winning  this  War  ....      Conway, 

May  6th,  1916.  21 

Secretary  of  State  for  War. 
Why  should  we  not  Sing?        Aberystwyth, 

Aug.  17th,  1916.  41 

Verdun       Verdun,  *Sepf.,  1916.      47 

The  Great  Men  of  Wales  ....      Cardiff,  Oct.  21th, 

1916.  49 

Prime  Minister. 

The  New  Government    ....      House  of  Commons, 

Dec.  19th,  1916.  63 

A  Safe  Investment  ....      Guildhall,  Jan.  11th, 

1917.  88 

Sacrifice  at  Home  ....      House  of  Commons, 

Feb,  23rd,  1917.  98 

Sowing  the  Winter  Wheat      Carnarvon,  Feb.  Srd, 

1917.  100 

Entry  of  America  into  the      Savoy  Hotel, 
War        A-pnl  12th,  1917.         119 

The  War  and  the  Empire        Guildhall,  A-pril  27th, 

1917.  131 

Restatement  of  the  Causes      Glasgow,  June  29th, 
and  Aims  of  the  War  ....      1917.  140 

Tii 


viii  CONTENTS 

"Victory  will  Come"      ... 
Belgium     

Serbia        

The  Pan-German  Dream 
The  Russian  Revolution 


DELIVERED  AT  PAGE 

Dundee,  June  dOth, 
1917. 


Queen's  Hall, 
July  21st,  1917. 

Savoy  Hotel, 
Aug.  8th,  1917. 

Queen's  Hall, 
Aug,  m,  1917. 

Birkenhead, 
Sept.  7th,  1917. 

The  Destruction  of  a  False      Albert  Hall, 

Oct.  22nd,  1917. 


Ideal 
A  Nation's  Thanks 

The  Co-ordination  of  Mili- 
tary Effort        

No  Halfway  House 

The    War    Aims    of    the 
AlUes      


Gray's  Inn, 
Dec.  Uth,  1917. 

Central  Hall, 
Westminster, 
Jan.  5th,  1918. 


164 
166 

174 
178 
187 
193 


House  of  Commons, 
Oct.  29th,  1917.  199 

Paris,  Nov.  13th, 
1917. 


216 
233 

251 


APPENDIX 


Extracts    from    "Through 
Terror  to  Triumph" 

I.    PREFACE 

II.  queen's  hall  speech 

III.  CITY  temple  speech 

IV.  BANGOR  

V.   BANGOR  


269 

Sept. 

19th, 

1914. 

273 

Nov. 

10th, 

1914. 

290 

Feb. 

28th, 

1915. 

300 

Aug. 

5th, 

1915. 

304 

EXTRACTS  FROM  SPEECHES 
WHILE  MINISTER  OF  MUNITIONS 


THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 


MUNITIONS:    PROGRESS  OF  BRITISH 
PRODUCTION. 

EXTRACTS   FROM    A    SPEECH    DELIVERED   IN   THE   HOUSE   OP 
COMMONS,    DECEMBER   20tH,    1915. 

Importance  of  Mechanical  Superiority  in  War. 

There  has  never  been  a  war  in  which  machinery 
played  anything  like  the  part  which  it  is  playing 
in  this  war.  The  place  acquired  by  machinery  in 
the  arts  of  peace  in  the  nineteenth  century  has 
been  won  by  machinery  in  the  grim  art  of  war  in 
the  twentieth  century.  In  no  war  ever  fought  in 
this  world  has  the  preponderance  of  machinery 
been  so  completely  established.  The  German  suc- 
cesses, such  as  they  are,  are  entirely,  or  almost 
entirely,  due  to  the  mechanical  preponderance 
which  they  achieved  at  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
Their  advances  in  the  East,  West,  and  South  are 
due  to  this  mechanical  superiority;  and  our  fail- 
ure to  drive  them  back  in  the  West  and  to  check 
their  advance  in  the  East  is  also  attributable  to 
the  tardiness  with  which  the  Allies  developed 
their  mechanical  resources.  The  problem  of  vic- 
tory is  one  of  seeing  that  this  superiority  of  the 

11 


12  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Central  Powers  shall  be  temporary,  and  shall  be 
brought  to  an  end  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 
There  is  one  production  in  which  the  Allies  had  a 
complete  mechanical  superiority,  and  there  they 
are  supreme — that  is  in  the  Navy.  Our  command 
of  the  sea  is  attributable  not  merely  to  the  excel- 
lence of  our  sailors,  but  to  the  overwhelming  su- 
periority of  our  machinery. 

There  is  another  aspect  of  this  question  which 
has  become  more  and  more  evident  as  this  war 
has  developed  and  progressed.  The  machine 
spares  the  man.  The  machine  is  essential  to  de- 
fend positions  of  peril,  and  it  saves  life,  because 
the  more  machinery  you  have  for  defence,  the 
more  thinly  you  can  hold  the  line ;  therefore,  the 
fewer  men  are  placed  in  positions  of  jeopardy  to 
life  and  limb.  We  have  discovered  that  some  of 
the  German  advanced  lines  were  held  by  excep- 
tionally few  men.  It  is  a  pretty  well-known  fact 
that  one  very  strong  position,  held  by  the  Ger- 
mans for  days  and  even  for  weeks,  was  defended 
against  a  very  considerable  French  army  by 
ninety  men,  armed  with  about  forty  to  fifty  ma- 
chine-guns, the  French  losing  heavily  in  making 
the  attack.  Machinery  in  that  case  spared  the 
men  who  were  defending.  It  is  one  portion  of  the 
function  which  has  been  entrusted  to  the  Ministry 
of  Munitions  to  increase  the  supply  of  machines 
in  order  to  save  the  lives  of  our  gallant  men.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  means  fewer  losses  in  attacking 
positions  of  peril,  because  it  demolishes  machine- 


IVIUNITIONS  13 

gnn  emplacements,  tears  up  barbed  wire,  destroys 
trenches.  What  we  stint  in  materials  we  squan- 
der in  life;  that  is  the  one  great  lesson  of  muni- 
tions. 

Necessity  for  an  Overwhelming  Mass  of  Material. 

I  should  like  to  dwell  a  little  upon  two  consider- 
ations, because  they  are  of  overwhelming  impor- 
tance. I  have  heard  rumours  that  we  are  over- 
doing it,  over- ordering,  over-building,  over-pro- 
ducing. Nothing  could  be  more  malevolent  or 
more  mischievous.  You  can  talk  about  over-or- 
dering when  we  have  as  much  as  the  Germans 
have,  and  even  then  I  should  like  to  argue  how 
far  we  have  to  go.  So  mischievous  is  that  kind 
of  talk  that  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  it  must 
have  originated  from  men  of  pro-German  sym- 
pathies, who  know  how  important  it  is  that  our 
troops  should,  at  the  critical  moment,  be  short  of 
that  overwhelming  mass  of  material  which  alone 
can  break  down  the  resistance  of  a  highly  en- 
trenched foe.  In  spite  of  our  great  efforts,  we 
have  not  yet  approached  the  German  and  French 
production.  We  have  got  to  reach  that  first  and 
not  last.  France  is  of  opinion  that  even  her  colos- 
sal efforts  are  inadequate.  I  have  consulted  gen- 
erals and  officers  of  experience  in  the  British  and 
French  armies.  The  conferences  which  I  have 
had  with  the  Minister  of  Munitions  in  France 
have  given  me  full  opportunity  of  obtaining  the 
views  of  the  most  highly  placed  and  distinguished 
officers  in  the  French  Army.    Before  I  quote  their 


14  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

opinions  let  me  point  out  that  all  these  generals 
up  to  the  present  have  invariably  underestimated 
the  quantity  of  materials  necessary  to  secure  vic- 
tory. I  am  not  surprised.  It  is  so  prodigious.  A 
great  French  general — one  of  the  greatest — who 
has  studied  tactics  with  the  highest  authorities 
says  that  that  is  the  great  surprise  of  the  war. 
Every  battle  that  has  been  fought  has  demon- 
strated one  thing:  that  even  now  it  is  an  under- 
estimate and  not  an  overestimate.  Take  the  last 
great  battle — that  of  Loos.  You  had  a  prodigious 
accumulation  of  ammunition.  There  is  not  a  gen- 
eral who  was  in  the  battle  who  in  giving  his  report 
does  not  tell  you  that  with  three  times  the  quan- 
tity of  ammunition,  especially  in  the  heavier  na- 
tures, they  would  have  achieved  twenty  times  the 
result. 

False  Economy. 

It  is  too  early  to  talk  about  over-production. 
The  most  fatuous  way  of  economising  is  to  pro- 
duce an  inadequate  supply.  A  good  margin  is  but 
a  sensible  insurance.  Less  than  enough  is  a  fool- 
ish piece  of  extravagance.  £200,000,000  will  pro- 
duce an  enormous  quantity  of  ammunition.  It  is 
forty  days '  cost  of  the  war.  If  you  have  it  at  the 
crucial  moment  your  war  might  be  won  in  the 
forty  days.  If  you  have  not,  it  might  run  to  400 
days.  What  sort  of  economy  is  that?  But  it  does 
not  merely  mean  that.  It  means  this — and  this  is 
a  fact  which  I  mean  to  repeat  in  every  speech  that 
I  make  on  the  question :  What  you  spare  in  money 


MUNITIONS  16 

you  spill  in  blood.  I  have  a  very  remarkable 
photograph  of  the  battlefield  of  Loos,  taken  imme- 
diately after  the  battle.  There  is  barbed  wire 
which  had  not  been  destroyed.  There  is  one  ma- 
chine-gun emplacement  intact — only  one!  The 
others  had  been  destroyed.  There,  in  front  of  the 
barbed  wire,  lie  hundreds  of  gallant  men.  There 
was  one  machine  gun — one! 

These  are  the  accidents  you  can  obviate.  How? 
Every  soldier  tells  me  there  is  but  one  way  of 
doing  it.  You  must  have  enough  ammunition  to 
crash  in  every  trench  wherein  the  enemy  lurks,  to 
destroy  every  concrete  emplacement,  to  shatter 
every  machine-g-un,  to  rend  and  tear  every  yard  of 
barbed  wire,  so  that  if  the  enemy  want  to  resist 
they  will  have  to  do  it  in  the  open,  face  to  face 
with  better  men. than  theme jlves.  That  is  the 
secret — plenty  of  ammunition.  I  hope  that  this 
idea  that  we  are  turning  out  too  much  will  not 
enter  into  the  mind  of  workman,  capitalist,  tax- 
payer, or  anybody  until  we  have  enough  to  crash 
our  way  through  to  victory.  You  must  spend 
wisely;  you  must  spend  to  the  best  purpose;  you 
must  not  pay  extravagant  prices;  but,  for 
Heaven's  sake,  if  there  are  risks  to  be  taken,  let 
them  be  risks  for  the  pocket  of  the  taxpayer,  and 
not  for  the  lives  of  the  soldiers! 


Too  Latef 

There  is  only  one  appeal  to  employer  and  era- 
ployed;  it  is  the  appeal  to  patriotism!    The  em- 


16  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

ployer  must  take  steps.  He  is  loth  to  do  it.  It  is 
a  sort  of  inertia  which  comes  to  tired  and  over- 
strained men — as  they  all  are.  They  must  really 
face  the  local  trade  unions,  and  put  forward  the 
demand,  because  until  they  do  so  the  State  cannot 
come  in.  We  have  had  an  Act  of  Parliament,  but 
the  law  must  be  put  into  operation  by  somebody. 
Unless  the  employer  begins  by  putting  on  the 
lathes  unskilled  men  and  women  we  cannot  en- 
force that  Act  of  Parliament.  The  first  step, 
therefore,  is  that  the  employer  must  challenge  a 
decision  upon  the  matter.  He  is  not  doing  so  be- 
cause of  the  trouble  which  a  few  other  firms  have 
had.  But  victory  depends  upon  it!  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  precious  lives  depend  upon  it !  It  is  a 
question  of  whether  you  are  going  to  bring  this 
war  victoriously  to  an  end  in  a  year  or  whether 
it  is  going  to  linger  on  in  bloodstained  paths  for 
years.  Labour  has  the  answer.  The  contract  was 
entered  into  with  labour.  We  are  carrying  it  out. 
It  can  be  done.  I  wonder  whether  it  will  not  be 
too  late !  Ah !  fatal  words  of  this  war !  Too  late 
in  moving  here !  Too  late  in  arriving  there !  Too 
late  in  coming  to  this  decision !  Too  late  in  start- 
ing with  enterprises !  Too  late  in  preparing !  In 
this  war  the  footsteps  of  the  Allied  forces  have 
been  dogged  by  the  mocking  spectre  of  "Too 
Late";  and  unless  we  quicken  our  movements 
damnation  will  fall  on  the  sacred  cause  for  which 
so  much  gallant  blood  has  flowed.  I  beg  employers 
and  workmen  not  to  have  **Too  Late"  inscribed 
upon  the  portals  of  their  workshops! 


MUNITIONS  17 

We  can  still  Win.      , 

Everything  in  the  next  few  months  of  this  war 
depends  upon  it.  What  has  happened?  We  have 
had  the  co-operation  of  our  Allies.  Great  results 
have  been  arrived  at.  At  the  last  conference  of 
the  Allies  decisions  were  arrived  at  which  will  af- 
fect the  whole  conduct  of  the  war.  The  carrying 
of  them  out  depends  upon  the  workmen  of  this 
country.  The  superficial  facts  of  the  war  are  for 
the  moment  against  us.  All  the  fundamental  facts 
are  in  our  favour.  That  means  we  have  every 
reason  for  looking  the  facts  steadily  in  the  face. 
There  is  nothing  but  encouragement  in  them  if  we 
look  beneath  the  surface.  The  chances  of  victory 
are  still  with  us.  We  have  thrown  away  many 
chances,  but  for  the  most  part  the  best  still 
remains.  In  this  war  the  elements  that  make  for 
success  in  a  short  war  were  with  our  enemies.  All 
the  advantages  that  make  for  victory  in  a  long  war 
were  ours,  and  are  still!  Better  preparation  be- 
fore the  war,  interior  lines,  unity  of  command — 
those  belonged  to  the  enemy.  He  had  a  better  con- 
ception at  first  of  what  war  really  meant.  More 
than  that,  he  has  undoubtedly  shown  greater 
readiness  than  we  to  learn  the  lessons  of  the  war 
and  to  adapt  himself  to  them.  Heavy  guns,  ma- 
chine-guns, trench  warfare — that  was  his  study. 
Our  study  was  the  sea.  We  have  accomplished 
our  task  there  to  the  last  letter  of  the  promise. 

The  advantages  of  a  protracted  war  are  ours. 
We   have   an   overwhelming   superiority   in   the 


18  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

raw  material  of  war.  It  is  still  with  us  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  the  Central  Powers  have  by  their 
successes  increased  their  reserve  of  men  and  ma- 
terial. We  have  the  command  of  the  sea  that 
gives  us  ready  access  to  neutral  countries.  Above 
all — and  this  tells  in  a  long  war — we  have  the  bet- 
ter cause.  It  is  better  for  the  heart.  Nations  do 
not  endure  to  the  end  for  a  bad  cause. 

All  these  advantages  are  ours.  But  this  is  the 
moment  of  intense  preparation.  It  is  the  moment 
of  putting  the  whole  of  our  energies  at  home  into 
preparing  for  the  blow  to  be  struck  abroad.  Our 
Fleet  and  the  gallantry  of  the  troops  of  the  Allies 
have  given  us  time  to  muster  our  reserves.  Let 
us  utilise  that  time  without  the  loss  of  a  moment. 
Let  us  cast  aside  the  fond  illusion  that  you  can 
win  victory  by  elaborate  pretence  that  you  are 
doing  so.  Let  us  fling  to  one  side  rivalries  and 
jealousies,  trade,  professional,  and  political.  Let 
us  be  one  people — one  in  aim,  one  in  action,  one  in 
resolution  to  win  the  most  sacred  cause  ever  en- 
trusted to  a  great  nation. 


A  WORD  TO  THE  ]\IUNITION  WORKERS. 

EXTRACTS    FROM    A    SPEECH    DELIVERED    AT    PONDER 'S    END 

SHELL    FACTORY,    FEBRUARY    3rD,    1916,    ON    OPENING    THE 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  DINING  ROOMS  FOR  THE  WORKERS. 

This  war  is  going  to  make  a  difference  in  the 
life  of  this  country  and  of  the  world,  a  difference 
for  better  or  for  worse  which  you  cannot  calculate. 
This  is  one  of  those  moments  in  the  history  of  the 
world  when  it  takes  a  plunge  downwards  or  a  flight 
upwards.  Which  it  takes  depends  not  upon  our 
soldiers  alone,  it  depends  upon  our  workmen  also. 
I  can  see  now  the  difference  which  it  is  making  in 
Britain.  In  the  old  days  the  hustler  was  regarded 
as  an  alien  enemy  who  had  come  to  this  country  to 
steal  the  bread  of  the  easygoing  Briton;  but  we 
have  discovered  that  the  hustler  is  a  British-bom 
subject,  living  among  us.  John  Bull  was  getting 
soft,  flabby,  fat  and  indolent.  He  was  just  slouch- 
ing along.  Then  the  war  came,  and  now  his  tissues 
are  as  firm  as  ever;  he  is  alert,  vigorous,  and 
strong;  he  is  hitting  hard,  and  is  going  to  work 
his  way  through  to  victory.  John  Bull  is  young 
again ;  the  war  has  rejuvenated  him.  I  see  before 
me  2,000  men  who  mean  business.  There  are  a 
million  more  outside,  and  more  than  a  million  in 
France  and  elsewhere  oversea  waiting  for  muni- 

19 


20  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

tions.  I  know  you  will  not  disappoint  them.  They 
are  gallant  and  brave  fellows.  Theirs  the  discom- 
fort, theirs  the  danger,  theirs,  too  often,  the  sacri- 
fice. Put  forth  the  whole  of  your  strength,  as  you 
are  doing  to-day,  and  their  sacrifice  will  not  be  in 
vain. 


WINNING  THIS  WAR. 

SPEECH    DELIVERED    AT    CONWAY,   TO    A    MEETING  OP 
CONSTITUENTS,  MAY  6tH,   1916. 

I  AM  very  delighted  to  find  surrounding  me  to- 
day old  political  friends  who  have  been  fighting 
many  doughty  battles  by  my  side  for  nearly  a  gen- 
eration. I  am  also  delighted  to  find  here  men  who 
have  been  fighting  political  battles  against  me 
The  task  we  have  in  hand  is  not  the  task  of  one 
party  or  of  two  parties,  but  a  task  for  the  nation 
as  a  whole,  and  we  wish  to  preserve  absolute  na- 
tional unity  until  we  secure  national  strength.  It 
is  not  always  easy.  I  am  not  enough  of  a  hunts- 
man to  know  what  happens  if  two  packs  happen 
to  get  mixed  up  together.  But,  after  all,  we  are 
rational  human  beings,  and  we  know  that  the  one 
condition  of  victory  is  unity. 

The  Supply  of  Munitions. 

About  a  year  ago  to-day  I  addressed  a  meeting 
at  Bangor,  My  object  then  was  to  endeavour  to 
impress  the  nation  with  a  sense  not  merely  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  issues  at  stake,  but  of  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  enterprise  and  of  the  gravity  of  the 
task.    I  then  urged  that  we  should  mobilise  all  the 

21 


22  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

national  resources,  whether  of  men  or  materials, 
in  order  to  carry  us  through  triumphantly. 

I  should  have  liked  to  tell  you  what  has  hap- 
pened since  in  the  way  of  organising  and  en- 
gineering the  resources  of  this  country  to  pro- 
vide our  gallant  troops  at  the  front  with  abund- 
ance of  munitions  to  enable  them  to  face  the  foe. 
I  hope  to  be  able  to  do  so  shortly  in  the  House  of 
Conunons.  In  another  month  I  shall  have  accom- 
plished a  year's  work  at  the  Ministry  of  Muni- 
tions, and  it  will  be  my  duty  to  render  an  account 
of  my  stewardship.  For  the  present  all  I  can  tell 
you  is  this,  that  we  have  increased  enormously 
not  merely  the  output,  but — what  is  more  impor- 
tant in  a  long  war — the  capacity  to  turn  out  muni- 
tions of  war. 

The  Supply  of  Men:  "A  Great  Crusade." 

At  that  time  we  had  more  men  than  equipment. 
I  therefore  dwelt  rather  on  munitions.  At  that 
date  men  were  coming  in  in  such  numbers  that  we 
had  no  equipment  for  them,  and  our  difficulties 
were  not  in  raising  armies,  but  in  fitting  them  for 
their  work.  Later  in  the  year  there  was  a  falling 
off.  The  flood-tide  seemed  to  have  abated;  but 
meanwhile  the  achievement  of  the  nation  in  raising 
by  voluntary  methods  those  huge  armies  was 
something  of  which  we  might  very  well  be  proud. 
It  was  almost  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  war, 
and  nothing  which  has  happened  since  in  the  way 
of  compulsory  measures  can  ever  detract  from 


WINNING  THIS  WAR  23 

the  pride  we  possess  in  the  fact  that  we  are  the 
first  nation  in  the  history  of  the  world  that  has 
raised  over  three  millions  of  men  for  any  great 
military  enterprise  purely  by  voluntary  means. 
Young  men  from  every  quarter  of  this  country 
flocked  to  the  standard  of  international  right  as 
to  a  great  crusade.  It  was  a  glorious  achievement, 
and  well  may  Britain  be  proud  of  it. 

The  Advent  of  Compulsion. 

But,  as  I  pointed  out,  the  numbers  fell  off  some- 
what towards  the  end  of  last  summer,  and  it  be- 
came abundantly  clear  about  August  and  Septem- 
ber that  if  we  were  to  carry  through  this  war  and 
get  an  adequate  supply  of  men  for  the  purpose  we 
should  have  to  resort  to  other  methods.  There 
is  no  indignity  in  compulsion.  Compulsion  simply 
means  that  a  nation  is  organising  itself  in  an  or- 
derly, consistent,  resolute  fashion  for  war.  Taxes 
are  compulsory,  although  I  should  say  there  is  no 
one  here  who  has  discovered  that  because  he  has 
paid  them  willingly  compulsion  and  voluntaryism 
are  not  inconsistent  in  a  democratic  nation.  Com- 
pulsion simply  means  the  will  of  the  majority  of 
the  people — the  voluntary  decision  of  the  major- 
ity. Unless  you  had  had  a  majority,  an  over- 
whelming majority,  compulsion  would  have  been 
impossible.  So  compulsion  is  simply  organised 
voluntary  effort.  You  must  organise  effort  when 
a  nation  is  in  peril.  You  cannot  run  a  war  as  you 
run  a  Sunday-school  treat,  where  one  man  volun- 


24.  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

tarily  brings  the  buns,  another  man  supplies  the 
tea  and  another  brings  the  kettle,  one  looks  after 
the  boiling  and  another  takes  round  the  teacups, 
some  contribute  in  cash,  and  a  good  many  lounge 
about  and  just  make  the  best  of  what  is  going. 
You  cannot  run  a  war  like  that. 


The  Sons  of  France  and  Conscription. 

Have  you  noticed  what  our  Allies  are  doing? 
Do  you  think  the  sons  of  France  have  gone  under 
the  shadow  of  the  lash  to  defend  her?  If  you  had 
been  there,  you  would  have  known  different.  The 
moment  the  country  was  in  peril,  not  as  a  matter 
of  duty,  not  as  a  legal  obligation,  but  as  a  matter 
of  right,  as  a  matter  of  will,  each  son  of  France 
rallied  to  her  flag,  and  it  was  the  pride  of  every 
daughter  of  France  of  her  free  will  to  give  those 
she  loved  for  France.  What  struck  me  there  was 
that  there  was  no  complaint,  that  they  did  not 
boast  about  it;  it  was  something  they  took  for 
granted  that  when  France  was  in  peril  everybody, 
as  a  matter  of  privilege,  should  go  and  fight  for 
her.  Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity,  the  great 
motto  of  France — I  will  tell  you  what  it  means. 
When  the  country  is  in  danger,  then  liberty  means 
the  right  of  every  man  to  defend  her;  equality 
means  equality  of  sacrifice  of  every  man  and 
woman  of  France ;  fraternity  means  the  brother- 
hood of  endurance,  eifort,  victory  for  France. 
That  is  what  it  means. 

I  met  one  of  the  most  important  men  in  France 


WINNING  THIS  WAR  25 

who  had  just  had  a  letter  from  his  boy  of  nine- 
teen in  the  trenches,  and  this  is  what  the  lad  said : 
*'I  thank  God  that  I  was  bom  in  the  year  1897, 
because  it  has  given  me  the  opportunity  of  laying 
down  my  life  for  France  in  1916."  That  is  the 
spirit  of  the  whole  nation,  which  does  not  regard 
conscription  as  something  that  compels  them  to 
do  their  duty,  but  purely  as  an  organisation  of  the 
will  of  everybody  to  strike  a  blow  for  their  native 
land. 

Our  Contributions. 

I  do  not  say  we  can  make  the  same  contribution 
in  men  in  proportion  to  the  population  as  France 
has  done.  It  was  generally  supposed  that  I  sug- 
gested that  the  other  night  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. I  did  not.  We  cannot  do  so.  Why?  We 
are  supplying  France  with  steel,  with  coal,  with 
the  material  for  explosives.  We  are  supplying 
other  Allies  with  munitions  of  war,  we  are  supply- 
ing them  generally  with  transport  on  the  seas,  we 
have  in  addition  to  a  great  army  the  greatest 
navy  in  the  world — and  well  do  our  Allies,  and 
still  better  do  our  foes,  know  that.  The  number  of 
men  engaged  in  equipping  the  Navy  with  muni- 
tions of  war  is  almost  as  great  as  the  numbers 
who  are  engaged  in  France  on  producing  muni- 
tions for  their  army.  We  must  take  all  that  into 
account. 


26  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Compulsion  and  Liberalism. 

I  thought  the  necessity  for  compulsion  had 
arisen  in  September.  I  still  think  so.  I  have  come 
here  to  talk  quite  frankly  to  you.  It  is  no  use 
talking  together  over  grave  issues  like  this  unless 
we  are  quite  frank  with  each  other.  Every  effort 
was  made  to  save  the  voluntary  system  by  the 
groups  of  Lord  Derby's  scheme,  and  for  myself  I 
cannot  express  the  admiration  which  I  have  for 
the  colossal  effort  put  forward  by  Lord  Derby. 
But  Lord  Derby's  scheme  was  not  the  voluntary 
system.  If  you  say  to  a  man,  "You  come  down 
from  there.  I  will  give  you  five  minutes,  and  if 
you  don't  I  shall  ask  a  policeman  to  fetch  you 
down,"  would  that  be  voluntary,  or  would  it  be 
compulsory?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  no  doubt 
at  all,  judged  noxv  by  experience, — and  we  are  all 
very  wise  after  the  event, — that  the  Derby  cam- 
paign had  a  great  many  of  the  disadvantages  of 
compulsion  and  voluntaryism  without  the  advan- 
tages of  either.  However,  I  do  not  want  to  go  back 
upon  that.  That  is  what  is  known  in  the  City  as 
''jobbing  backwards."  What  stands  now  is  this, 
that  the  House  of  Commons,  by  an  overwhelming 
majority,  has  declared  that  the  time  has  arrived 
for  putting  a  compulsory  scheme  into  operation, 
and  the  majority  has  increased. 

I  am  told  that  the  fact  that  I  supported  it  proves 
that  I  am  no  longer  a  Liberal.  Well,  there  must 
be  a  good  many  Liberals  in  the  same  plight,  be- 
cause the  other  night  barely  one-tenth  of  the  Lib- 


WINNING  THIS  WAR  27 

eral  Party  voted  against  it.  All  the  rest  voted  for 
it.  Well,  then,  there  is  no  Liberal  Party  alive ! 
The  Liberals  had  only  twenty-eight  members  in 
the  House.  They  used  to  have  280.  What  has 
happened  to  all  the  rest?  They  must  be  turned 
Tory!  After  all,  as  I  tried  to  point  out  in  the 
House  of  Commons, — and  nobody  has  challenged 
the  historical  truth  of  what  I  said — great  de- 
mocracies in  peril  have  always  had  to  resort  to 
compulsion  to  save  themselves.  Empires  have  been 
saved  by  compulsion,  so  have  Republics.  Three 
Republics,  at  any  rate,  have  been  saved  by  com- 
pulsion. It  is  purely,  as  I  said,  a  means  of  organ- 
ising the  strength  and  virility  of  a  nation  to  save 
itself  from  oppression,  and  that  is  why,  as  a  Lib- 
eral fighting  the  battle  of  liberty  in  Europe,  I 
have  no  shame  in  declaring  for  compulsory  enlist- 
ment as  I  would  for  compulsory  taxes  or  for  com- 
pulsory education,  or,  if  you  will  allow  me,  for 
compulsory  insurance.  Some  of  my  friends  are 
now  very  angry  with  me.  I  happen  to  be  what  is 
known  in  Parliamentary  language  and  through 
life  as  a  ''contentious  subject."  However,  I  have 
attempted  to  go  through  with  it,  but  many  are  very 
angry  with  me  because  I  supported  conscription 
in  September,  In  September  it  was  heresy,  in 
January  it  is  the  true  faith.  Why?  Why,  if  it  is 
a  matter  of  principle  ?  What  has  made  the  heresy 
of  September  orthodox  in  Januarj^?  Nothing  that 
I  can  see,  except  that  in  January  it  had  the  re- 
deeming feature  of  tardiness  and  inadequacy. 
But  there  it  is.    It  has  been  carried  by  the  efforts 


28  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

of  the  two  great  parties,  and,  unless  I  am  mis- 
taken, there  was  only  a  minority  in  the  Labonr 
Party  who  voted  against  it. 


'^ Poison  Gas/* 

But,  talking  of  attacks,  I  have  been  subjected  to 
a  cloudy  discharge  of  poison  gas.  I  am  glad  it 
has  been  done.  These  things  had  been  going  on 
clandestinely  and  surreptitiously  for  months  and 
I  could  not  deal  with  them.  My  difficulty  was  that 
no  self-respecting  man  or  newspaper  could  be 
found  to  give  publicity  to  these  attacks,  and  there- 
fore I  could  not  answer  them.  I  am  not  surprised. 
We,  after  all,  are  a  country  that  has  produced  mil- 
lions of  fighters,  but  we  very  rarely  in  history  pro- 
duced an  assassin.  They  found  one  at  last.  If 
I  may  be  allowed  to  alter  my  metaphor — and  I  like 
to  speak  in  parables — there  is  one  very  disagree- 
able form  of  neighbour  which  you  have  in  a  town 
or  suburb.  He  is  the  man  who  gathers  together 
all  the  vile  weeds  in  his  garden,  and,  when  the 
wind  is  favourable,  sets  fire  to  them  when  he  is 
quite  sure  the  fumes  will  go  towards  his  innocent 
neighbour.  Well,  all  you  have  to  do — there  is  an 
advantage  in  it,  you  know  it  can  only  happen  once 
■ — you  just  either  keep  away  or  hold  your  nostrils, 
and  you  know  it  will  be  burnt  out.  That  I  am 
going  to  do. 

I  saw  that  I  was  expected  to  give  a  full  reply 
to  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  these  criticisms.  I 
shall  do  nothing  of  the  kind.    This  is  a  great  war. 


WINNING  THIS  WAR  29 

Millions  of  gallant  lives  have  fallen;  the  fate  of 
Europe,  the  fate,  perhaps,  of  the  British  Empire 
— perhaps  the  fate  of  human  liberty  for  genera- 
tions— is  trembling  in  the  balance,  and  if  any  man 
believes,  on  the  testimony  of  the  person  who  pub- 
lishes or  invents  private  conversation  in  order  to 
malign  a  friend — if  any  man  believes  that  I  am 
capable  amid  such  terrible  surroundings  of  mak- 
ing use  of  them  for  a  base  and  treacherous  in- 
trigue to  advance  my  private  ends,  let  him  believe 
it.  I  seek  neither  his  friendship  nor  his  support. 
I  reserve  my  sympathy  for  those  who  get  either, 
and  my  disdain  for  those  who  merit  it. 

Charges  of  Disloyalty:  What  Constitutes  Loyalty . 

But  there  are  honest  Liberals  who  have  no  taste 
for  that  kind  of  nauseous  slander  who  are  worried 
about  two  things.  For  them  I  have  an  answer. 
What  are  the  two  things  ?  I  have  told  you  I  have 
come  here  to  speak  frankly.  You  are  my  con- 
stituents. You  have  stood  by  me  for  thirty  years, 
and  you  are  entitled  to  know  what  I  am  about. 
There  are  people  who  say,  ''What  is  he  up  to 
now?"  I  am  going  to  tell  you  what  I  am  up  to — 
I  am  up  to  winning  this  war. 

But  let  me  tell  you  what  are  the  two  things  that 
trouble  honest  and  sincere  Liberals.  One  is  that 
I  seem  to  have  some  differences  of  opinion  with 
my  chief.  I  have  worked  with  him  for  ten  years ; 
I  have  served  under  him  for  eight.  If  we  had  not 
worked  harmoniously — and  we  have — let  me  tell 


30  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

you  here  at  once  it  would  have  been  nay  fault  and 
not  his.  I  never  worked  with  any  one  who  could 
be  more  considerate.  But  we  have  had  our  dif- 
ferences. Good  heaven !  What  use  would  I  have 
been  if  I  had  not  differed?  I  should  have  been  no 
use  at  all.  He  has  shown  me  great  kindnesses 
during  the  years  I  have  worked  with  him.  I 
should  have  ill  requited  them  if  I  had  not  told  my 
opinions  freely,  frankly,  independently,  whether 
they  agreed  with  his  or  not. 

Freedom  of  speech  is  essential  everywhere,  but 
there  is  one  place  where  it  is  vital,  and  that  is  in 
the  Council  Chamber.  The  councillor  who  pro- 
fesses to  agree  with  everything  that  falls  from  his 
leader  has  betrayed  him.  Napoleon,  who  was  a 
great  leader  of  men,  discouraged  free  discussion 
everywhere  except  in  the  council  of  war.  There 
he  encouraged  it.  He  promoted  it,  he  did  not 
ask  the  people  there  to  say  ditto  to  what  he  pro- 
fessed, and  if  there  had  been  any  foolish  news- 
papers in  that  day  who,  the  moment  they  discov- 
ered that  councillors  inside  Napoleon's  Council 
Chamber  had  dared  to  disapprove  of  his  plans, 
published  the  fact  and  denounced  them  as  cavil- 
lers, traitors,  and  intriguers,  they  would  have  done 
infinite  harm  to  France,  for  they  would  have 
ruined  Napoleon.  There  are  twenty-three  of  us 
and  if  we  all  came  together  with  exactly  the  same 
mind,  exactly  the  same  plan,  exactly  the  same  pro- 
posals and  schemes,  what  a  marvel  it  would  have 
been,  and  how  worthless  would  it  have  been ! 

After  all,  in  the  Council  Chamber  you  want  free 


WINNING  THIS  WAR  81 

expression  of  opinion.  You  want  a  variety  of 
opinions  expressed,  and  the  height  of  msdom 
is  in  knowing,  not  what  counsel  to  give,  but  which 
counsel  to  take.  Many  men,  many  minds,  and  if 
there  are  not  many  minds  you  may  depend  upon 
it  there  are  not  very  many  men.  They  are  not 
men,  but  automatons,  and  what  I  want  to  know  is 
this,  whether  the  nation  in  a  great  war  wants  coun- 
sellors or  mere  penny-in-the-slot  machines.  If  the 
latter,  then  all  I  can  say  is  I  desire  to  be  no  part  of 
the  equipment. 

^'Wage  War  with  all  your  might.'' 

Let  me  give  you  a  second  matter  which  seems 
to  be  worrying  some  of  my  very  best  Liberal 
friends.  They  are  rather  shocked  in  their  hearts 
because  I  am  throwing  such  fervour  into  the 
prosecution  of  the  war.  Well,  I  hate  war.  I  very 
often  feel  a  sense  of  shock  pass  through  my  sys- 
tem when  I  realise  what  the  terrible  machines 
which  I  am  helping  to  manufacture  are  intended 
for.  But  you  either  make  war  or  you  don't.  It 
is  the  business  of  statesmen  to  strain  every  nerve 
to  keep  a  nation  out  of  war,  but  once  they  are  in 
it,  it  is  also  their  business  to  wage  it  with  all 
their  might.  It  is  the  old  story.  Beware  of  en- 
trance to  a  quarrel,  but  being  in  it,  see  that  thine 
enemy  beware  of  thee.  That  is  the  reason  why 
men  can  wage  effective  war  only  when  they  have 
either  a  good  conscience  or  no  conscience  at  all. 
The  latter  has  been  the  German  case.    I  also  hate 


32  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

war,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  I  want  this  to  be 
the  last,  and  it  won't  be  unless  this  war  is  effec- 
tively waged  by  us.  A  badly  conducted  war  means 
a  bad  peace,  and  a  bad  peace  means  no  peace  at 
all.  That  is  why  I  have  urged  that  this  war  should 
be  conducted  with  determination. 


The  Need  for  Resolution. 

You  must  not  only  be  resolute,  but  you  must  ap- 
pear to  be  resolute.  I  have  heard  a  good  deal  of 
criticism  of  the  Government — some  of  it  very  un- 
fair, some  of  it  very  ill-informed,  a  good  deal  of  it 
rather  shrewish — ^but  I  will  tell  you  at  once  the 
criticism  I  have  had  most  difficulty  in  answering. 
I  will  put  it  in  this  form — that  we  are  a  huge,  un- 
wieldy van,  very  good  material  in  all  its  parts, 
but  rather  lacking  in  propelling  power,  and  for 
that  reason,  whenever  we  come  to  an  obstacle  or 
declivity,  we  rather  roll  and  ricket  and  threaten 
to  come  to  a  standstill.  One  set  of  men,  we  are 
told,  pushes  one  way,  another  set  of  men  pushes 
another  way,  and  a  further  set  of  men  undoubt- 
edly tries  to  throw  us  over  altogether,  and  the  di- 
rection in  which  we  go  depends  on  the  largest 
number  of  men  who  are  pushing  or  upon  the  pur- 
chase which  they  have  got  at  the  moment. 

I  do  not  think  it  is  fair  criticism  altogether,  and 
it  does  not  sufficiently  take  into  account  enormous 
difficulties  which  you  have  in  a  great  war  like  this. 
"We  have  accomplished  enormous  results  in  the 
raising  of  armies  and  in  their  equipment,  when 


WINNING  THIS  WAR  33 

you  consider  that  we  began  with  about  the  tiniest 
anny  in  Europe,  smaller  than  the  Serbian  Army, 
and  that  we  now  have  one  of  the  greatest  and  best 
equipped  armies  in  the  world.  Still  I  agree  that 
in  conducting  a  war  a  Government  should  not  only 
be  resolute  but  appear  resolute.  War  is  a  terrible 
business,  but  men  will  face  all  its  horrors  if  they 
have  confidence  in  their  leaders.  But  if  there  is 
hesitation,  if  there  is  timidity,  if  there  is  the  ap- 
pearance of  irresolution,  the  bravest  hearts  will 
fail.  The  spirit  of  the  nation  is  the  propellant  of 
its  armies.  Therefore  it  is  important,  whatever 
happens,  that  you  should  have  confidence  that  the 
Government  is  doing  its  best  in  the  firmest  and 
most  resolute  manner  to  conduct  the  war.  That 
is  why  I  have  had  no  sympathy  with  those  who 
seem  to  think  that  because  war  is  hateful  you 
ought  to  fight  it  with  a  savour  of  regret  in  your 
actions.  Doubting  hand  never  yet  struck  a  firm 
blow. 

** Freedom  at  Stake." 

In  any  action  which  I  have  taken  since  the  war 
I  am  not  conscious  of  having  departed  from  any 
principle  which  I  ever  enunciated  to  you  on  this 
platform.  I  came  into  politics  to  fight  for  the 
under  dog,  and  it  has  been  all  the  same  to  me 
whether  he  was  an  underpaid  agricultural  la- 
bourer, a  sick  workman,  an  infirm  and  broken  old 
man  or  woman  who  had  given  their  lives  to  the 
country,  a  poor  slum  dweller,  or  a  small  nation 
harried  by  voracious  Empires.     In  fighting  this 


34  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

war  I  have  simply,  in  my  judgment,  been  carrying 
out  the  principles  which  I  have  advocated  on  this 
platform  now  for  thirty  years  of  my  life.  I  have 
had  no  illusions  as  to  what  this  war  means  or 
meant.  I  have  always  felt  that  the  life  of  this 
Empire  was  at  stake,  and  I  know  how  much  de- 
pends on  that  life.  With  all  its  faults,  the  British 
Empire,  here  and  across  the  seas,  stands  for  freer, 
better,  ampler,  nobler  conditions  of  life  for  man. 
I  believed  that  in  this  war  freedom  was  at  stake, 
so  I  have  thrown  myself  with  all  my  heart  and 
soul  and  strength  into  working  for  victory. 

Facing  the  Facts. 

Nor  have  I  ever  had  any  doubts  about  the  re- 
sult, if  we  fought  with  intelligence  and  with  reso- 
lution. The  fundamental  facts  are  in  our  favour. 
"We  have  command  of  the  seas.  We  have  it  now 
more  completely  than  we  ever  had.  The  resources 
of  raw  material  for  arms,  men,  and  equipment  are 
ours.  But  it  takes  time  to  bring  them  all  into  full 
operation.  The  business,  of  the  enemy  is  to  de- 
stroy or  to  wear  out  one  of  the  Allies  or  break  up 
the  alliance  before  that  time  comes.  Our  business 
is  to  minimise  those  risks,  shortening  the  time 
within  which  we  can  bring  out  our  own  maximum 
streng-th  to  bear  on  the  enemy. 

But  I  want  to  say  one  thing,  time  is  not  an  ally. 
It  is  a  doubtful  neutral  at  the  present  moment  and 
has  not  yet  settled  on  our  side.  But  time  can  be 
won  ovei  by  effort,  by  preparation,  by  determina- 


I 


WINNING  THIS  WAR  85 

tion,  by  organisation.  We  must  reckon  fearlessly 
the  forces  of  the  enemy.  We  must  impartially,  in- 
telligently, reckon  our  own.  There  is  no  greater 
stupidity  in  a  war  than  to  underestimate  the  forces 
with  which  j^ou  have  to  contend.  Calculate  them 
to  the  last  man,  add  them  up  to  the  last  man,  add 
them  up  to  the  last  shilling.  See  what  you  have  to 
face,  and  then  face  it.  Then  I  have  no  doubt  of 
victory. 

W^e  must  have  unity  among  the  Allies,  design, 
and  co-ordination.  Unity  we  undoubtedly  possess. 
No  alliance  that  ever  existed  has  worked  in  more 
perfect  unison  and  harmony  than  the  present  one. 
Design  and  co-ordination  leave  yet  a  good  deal 
to  be  desired.  Strategy  must  come  before  geog- 
raphy. The  Central  Powers  are  pooling  their 
forces,  all  their  intelligence,  all  their  brains,  all 
their  efforts.  We  have  the  means.  They  too  often 
have  the  methods.  Let  us  apply  their  methods  to 
our  means  and  we  win. 

''Trust  the  People.'' 

And  then  we  shall  come  to  the  reckoning  for  the 
long,  dreary,  cruel  tale  of  wrong ;  the  outrages  on 
Belgium,  the  atrocities  in  Poland,  the  barbarisms 
of  Wittenberg,  the  inhumanities  of  the  Lusitania. 
The  long  account  must  be  settled  to  the  last  farth- 
ing. That  is  why  I  attach  so  much  importance 
to  this  nation,  which  has  so  often  led  the  battle 
of  right  and  freedom  in  Europe,  mobilising  the 
whole  of  its   strength   for   this   great  purpose. 


36  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

I  have  no  fear  of  the  people.  Britain  will  fight 
it  out.  We  are  a  sluggish  people,  but  no  one  ever 
made  the  mistake  that  we  were  faint-hearted  with- 
out suffering  for  it.  I  believe  in  the  old  motto, 
"Trust  the  People."  Tell  them  what  is  happen- 
ing. There  is  nothing  to  conceal.  Have  all  the 
facts  before  them.  They  are  a  courageous  people, 
but  they  never  put  forward  their  best  effort  in 
this  land  until  they  face  the  alternative  of  dis- 
aster. Tell  them  what  they  are  confronted  with 
and  they  will  rise  to  every  occasion.  Look  at  the 
way  they  are  doing  it.  The  people  are  capable  of 
rising  to  greater  heights  than  even  their  truest 
leaders  ever  believed.  Look  at  the  way,  the  cheer- 
ful way — it  is  the  amazement  of  every  man  who 
has  been  at  the  front — they  are  enduring  hard- 
ships, wounds,  facing  danger  and  death  on  the 
battlefield.  Look  at  the  calm,  quiet  courage  with 
which  the  men  and  women  at  home  are  enduring 
grief.    You  can  trust  the  people. 

I  read  a  story  the  other  day  about  a  mining 
camp  at  the  foot  of  a  black  mountain  in  the  great 
West.  The  diggers  had  been  toiling  long  and  hard 
with  but  scant  encouragement  for  their  labours, 
and  one  night  a  terrible  storm  swept  over  the 
mountain.  An  earthquake  shattered  its  hard  sur- 
face and  hurled  its  rocks  about ;  and  in  the  morn- 
ing in  the  rents  and  fissures  they  found  a  rich  de- 
posit of  gold.  This  is  a  great  storm  that  is  sweep- 
ing over  the  favoured  lands  of  Europe ;  but  in  this 
night  of  terror  you  will  find  that  the  hard  crust  of 


WINNING  THIS  WAR  37 

selfishness  and  greed  has  been  shattered,  and  in 
the  rent  hearts  of  the  people  you  will  find  treas- 
ures, golden  treasures,  of  courage,  steadfastness, 
endurance,  devotion,  and  of  the  faith  that  endur- 
eth  for  ever. 


SECRETARY  OF  STATE  FOR  WAR 


WHY  SHOULD  WE  NOT  SING? 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  ABERYSTWYTH,   AT  THE  WELSH 
NATIONAL   EISTEDDFOD,   AUGUST   17TH,   1916. 

I  HAVE  come  liere  at  some  inconvenience  to  at- 
tend, and  if  necessary  to  defend,  this  Eisteddfod. 
I  have  been  a  strong  advocate  of  its  being  held.  I 
was  anxious  there  should  be  no  interruption  on 
account  of  the  war  in  the  continuity  of  the  Welsh 
National  Eisteddfod.  It  is  too  valuable  an  insti- 
tution, it  has  rendered  too  great  services  to  our 
country  to  risk  its  life  by  placing  it  into  a  state  of 
suspended  animation  for  an  indefinite  period.  The 
British  Association  has  held  its  meetings  every 
year  since  the  war  began ;  it  will  hold  another  next 
month,  and  I  am  glad  of  it ;  but  much  as  I  esteem 
the  services  rendered  to  research  by  that  gather- 
ing, I  claim  that  the  services  rendered  to  popular 
culture  by  the  National  Eisteddfod  have  been 
even  greater. 

There  are  a  few  people  who  know  nothing  about 
the  Eisteddfod  who  treat  it  as  if  it  were  merely  an 
annual  jollification  which  eccentric  people  indulge 
in.  There  was  a  letter  appearing  in  The  Times 
this  week  written  by  a  person  who  seems  to  hold 
that  opinion.  He  signs  himself  **A  Welshman." 
He  evidently  thinks  that  the  publication  of  his 

41 


42  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

name  would  add  nothing  to  the  weight  of  his  ap- 
peal, so  he  has — wisely,  no  doubt — withheld  it. 
Now  The  Times  is  not  exactly  the  organ  of  the 
Welsh  peasantry.  That  does  not  matter  to  this 
gentleman,  because  he  makes  it  clear  that  he  has 
no  objection  to  common  people  attending  the  Eis- 
teddfod; but  he  expresses  the  earnest  hope  that 
important  people  like  the  Welsh  M.P.'s  will  not 
encourage  such  an  improper  assembly  by  giving 
it  their  presence.  His  notion  of  the  Eisteddfod  is 
a  peculiar  one,  and  as  there  might  be  a  few  people 
outside  Wales  who  hold  the  same  views,  I  think  I 
must  refer  to  this  estimate  of  its  purport  and  sig- 
nificance. He  places  it  in  the  same  category  as  a 
football  match  or  a  horse-race  and  a  good  deal 
beneath  a  cinema  or  music-hall  performance. 
These  are  kept  going  afternoon  and  evening  with- 
out the  slightest  protest  in  the  columns  of  The 
Times  from  this  egregious  Welshman. 

The  competing  bards  are  to  him  so  many  race- 
horses started  round  the  course  by  Mr.  L.  D. 
Jones,  the  chairing  day  being,  I  suppose,  the 
Bardic  Oaks.  Sir  Vincent  Evans  would  be  the 
grand  bookmaker,  who  arranges  the  stakes,  and  of 
course  we  all  have  something  on  one  or  other  of 
the  starters.  The  meetings  of  the  Cymmrodorion, 
the  Gorsedd  of  the  Bards,  the  Arts  Section,  the 
Folklore  Society,  the  Union  of  the  Welsh  Socie- 
ties, and  the  Bibliographical  Society  are  the  side- 
shows which  amuse  the  Eisteddfodic  larrikins 
whilst  the  race  is  not  on.  That  is  where  the 
thimble-rigging  and  the  cocoanut  shies  and  games 


WHY  SHOULD  WE  NOT  SING?  43 

of  that  sort  are  carried  on!  No  wonder  this  in- 
telligent gentleman  is  ashamed  to  avow  his  name. 
I  challenge  him  to  give  it.  It  will  be  useful  as  a 
warning  to  readers  of  English  papers  of  the  class 
who  anonymously  insult  Welsh  institutions. 

Let  any  man  look  through  this  programme  and 
see  for  himself  what  the  Eisteddfod  means — prizes 
for  odes,  sonnets,  translations  from  Latin  and 
Greek  literature,  essays  on  subjects  philosophical, 
historical,  sociological.  An  adequate  treatment 
of  some  of  these  subjects  necessarily  involves  a 
good  deal  of  original  research.  Art  is  encour- 
aged; even  agriculture  is  not  forgotten.  Forsooth, 
all  this  effort  should  be  dropped  on  account  of  the 
war !  To  encourage  idle  persons  to  compose  poet- 
ry during  war  is  unpatriotic.  Promoting  culture 
amongst  the  people,  a  futile  endeavour  at  all 
times,  during  the  war  is  something  every  Welsh 
member  of  Parliament  ought  to  snub.  To  give  a 
prize  for  a  study  of  the  social  and  industrial  con- 
ditions of  a  Welsh  village  is  dangerous  at  any 
time,  and  during  a  war  it  is  doubly  so.  To  excite 
the  interest  of  the  people  in  literature  during  the 
war  is  a  criminal  waste  of  public  money.  Above 
all,  to  sing  during  a  war,  and  especially  to  sing 
national  songs  during  a  war,  is  positively  inde- 
cent, and  the  powers  of  the  Defence  of  the  Realm 
Act  ought  at  once  to  be  invoked  to  suppress  it. 
Hush!    No  music,  please;  there  is  a  war  on! 

Why  should  we  not  sing  during  war?  Why, 
especially,  should  we  not  sing  at  this  stage  of  the 
war?     The  blinds  of  Britain  are  not  dowTi  yet, 


44  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

nor  are  they  likely  to  be.  The  honour  of  Britain 
is  not  dead,  her  might  is  not  broken,  her  destiny 
is  not  fulfilled,  her  ideals  are  not  shattered  by  her 
enemies.  She  is  more  than  alive ;  she  is  more  po- 
tent, she  is  greater  than  she  ever  was.  Her  domin- 
ions are  wider,  her  influence  is  deeper,  her  pur- 
pose is  more  exalted  than  ever.  Why  should  her 
children  not  sing?  I  know  war  means  suffering, 
war  means  sorrow.  Darkness  has  fallen  on  many 
a  devoted  household,  but  it  has  been  ordained  that 
the  best  singer  amongst  the  birds  of  Britain  should 
give  its  song  in  the  night,  and  according  to  legend 
that  sweet  song  is  one  of  triumph  over  pain. 
There  are  no  nightingales  this  side  of  the  Severn. 
Providence  rarely  wastes  its  gifts.  We  do  not 
need  this  exquisite  songster  in  Wales ;  we  can  pro- 
vide better.  There  is  a  bird  in  our  villages  which 
can  beat  the  best  of  them.  He  is  called  Y  Cymro. 
He  sings  in  joy,  he  sings  also  in  sorrow ;  he  sings 
in  prosperity,  he  sings  also  in  adversity.  He  sings 
at  play,  he  sings  at  work;  he  sings  in  the  sun- 
shine, he  sings  in  the  storm;  he  sings  in  the  day- 
time, he  sings  also  in  the  night ;  he  sings  in  peace ; 
why  should  he  not  sing  in  war?  Hundreds  of  wars 
have  swept  over  these  hills,  but  the  harp  of  Wales 
has  never  yet  been  silenced  by  one  of  them,  and  I 
should  be  proud  if  I  contributed  something  to  keep 
it  in  tune  during  the  war  by  the  holding  of  this 
Eisteddfod  to-day. 

Our  soldiers  sing  the  songs  of  Wales  in  the 
trenches,  and  they  hold  the  little  Eisteddfod  be- 
hind them.     Here  is  a  telegram  which  has  been 


WHY  SHOULD  WE  NOT  SING?  45 

received  by  the  secretary  of  the  Eisteddfod  from 
them.  The  telegram  says:  ** Greetings  and  best 
wishes  for  success  to  the  Eisteddfod  and  Cym- 
anfa  Ganu  from  Welshmen  in  the  field.  Next 
Eisteddfod  we  shall  be  with  you."  Please  God, 
they  will.  That  telegram  is  from  the  38th  Welsh 
Division.  They  do  not  ask  us  to  stop  singing. 
There  is  not  one  of  them  who  would  not  be  sorry 
if  we  gave  up  our  National  Eisteddfod  during  the 
war.  They  want  to  feel  that  while  they  are  up- 
holding the  honour  of  Wales  on  the  battlefields 
of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  we  are  doing  our 
best  to  keep  alive  all  the  institutions,  educational, 
literary,  musical,  religious,  which  have  made 
Wales  what  it  is  to  them.  They  want  the  fires  on 
every  national  altar  kept  burning,  so  that  they 
shall  be  alight  when  they  return  with  the  laurels 
of  victory  from  the  stricken  fields  of  this  mighty 
war.  That  is  why  I  am  in  favour  of  holding  this 
festival  of  Welsh  literature  and  of  song  even  in 
the  middle  of  Armageddon. 

But  I  have  another  and  even  more  urgent  reason 
for  wishing  to  keep  this  Eisteddfod  alive  during 
the  war.  When  this  terrible  conflict  is  over  a  wave 
of  materialism  will  sweep  over  the  land.  Nothing 
will  count  but  machinery  and  output.  I  am  all  for 
output,  and  I  have  done  my  best  to  improve  ma- 
chinery and  increase  output.  But  that  is  not  all. 
There  is  nothing  more  fatal  to  a  people  than  that 
it  should  narrow  its  vision  to  the  material  needs  of 
the  hour.  National  ideals  without  imagination 
are  but  as  the  thistles  of  the  wilderness,  fit  neither 


46  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

for  food  nor  fuel.  A  nation  that  depends  upon 
them  must  perish.  "We  shall  need  at  the  end  of 
the  war  better  workshops,  but  we  shall  also  need 
more  than  ever  every  institution  that  will  exalt 
the  vision  of  the  people  above  and  beyond  the 
workshop  and  the  counting-house.  We  shall  need 
every  national  tradition  that  will  remind  them 
that  men  cannot  live  by  bread  alone. 

I  make  no  apology  for  advocating  the  holding 
of  the  Eisteddfod  in  the  middle  of  this  great  con- 
flict, even  although  it  were  merely  a  carnival  of 
song,  as  it  has  been  stigmatised.  The  storm  is 
raging  as  fiercely  as  ever,  but  now  there  is  a  shim- 
mer of  sunshine  over  the  waves,  there  is  a  rain- 
bow on  the  tumult  of  surging  waters.  The  strug- 
gle is  more  terrible  than  it  has  ever  been,  but 
the  legions  of  the  oppressor  are  being  driven  back 
and  the  banner  of  right  is  pressing  forward.  Why 
should  we  not  sing?  It  is  true  there  are  thousands 
of  gallant  men  falling  in  the  fight — let  us  sing  of 
their  heroism.  There  are  myriads  more  standing 
in  the  battle-lines  facing  the  foe,  and  myriads 
more  behind  ready  to  support  them  when  their 
turn  comes.  Let  us  sing  of  the  land  that  gave 
birth  to  so  many  heroes. 

I  am  glad  that  I  came  down  from  the  cares  and 
labour  of  the  War  Office  of  the  British  Empire  to 
listen  and  to  join  with  you  in  singing  the  old  songs 
which  our  brave  countrymen  on  the  battlefield  are 
singing  as  a  defiance  to  the  enemies  of  human 
right. 


VERDUN. 

SPOKEN  IN  THE  VxVULT  OP  THE  CITADEL  OF  VERDUN, 
SEPTEMBER,  1916. 

First  of  all  I  wish  to  tell  you  how  glad  I  am  that 
you  asked  me  to  sit  at  table  with  your  ofiBcers  in 
the  heart  of  Verdun's  citadel.  I  am  glad  to  see 
around  me  those  who  have  come  back  from  battle, 
those  who  will  be  fighting  to-morrow,  and  those 
who,  with  you,  General,  are  sentries  on  these  im- 
pregnable walls.  The  name  of  Verdun  alone  will 
be  enough  to  arouse  imperishable  memories 
throughout  the  centuries  to  come.  There  is  not 
one  of  the  great  feats  of  arms  which  make  the 
history  of  France  which  better  shows  the  high 
qualities  of  the  Army  and  the  people  of  France; 
and  that  bravery  and  devotion  to  country,  to 
which  the  world  has  ever  paid  homage,  have  been 
strengthened  by  a  sang-froid  and  tenacity  which 
yield  nothing  to  British  phlegm. 

The  memory  of  the  victorious  resistance  of  Ver- 
dun will  be  immortal  because  Verdun  saved  not 
only  France,  but  the  whole  of  the  great  cause 
which  is  common  to  ourselves  and  humanity.  The 
evil-working  force  of  the  enemy  has  broken  itself 
against  the  heights  around  this  old  citadel  as  an 
angry  sea  breaks  upon  a  granite  rock.  These 
heights  have  conquered  the  storm  which  threat- 
ened the  world. 

47 


48  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

I  am  deeply  moved  when  I  tread  this  sacred 
soil,  and  I  do  not  speak  for  myself  alone.  I  bring 
to  you  a  tribute  of  the  admiration  of  my  country, 
of  the  great  Empire  which  I  represent  here.  They 
bow  with  me  before  your  sacrifice  and  before  your 
glory.  Once  again,  for  the  defence  of  the  great 
causes  with  which  its  very  future  is  bound  up, 
mankind  turns  to  France.  ''A  la  France!  Aux 
hommes  tombes  sous  Verdun!'* 


THE  GREAT  MEN  OF  WALES. 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  CARDIFF  TOWN  HALL  ON  THE 
OCCASION  OF  THE  UNVEILING  OF  STATUES  OF  GREAT  MEN 
OP  WALES,  PRESENTED  BY  LORD  RHONDDA  ON  HIS  BEING 
ADMITTED   TO   THE   FREEDOM   OF   THE   CITY,   OCTOBER   27TH, 

1916. 

This  is  a  theme  that  peculiarly  demands  careful 
thought  and  preparation — the  theme  of  the  great 
men  of  Wales,  of  whom  we  have  representatives 
in  statuary  here  to-day.  It  is  a  great  theme.  I 
can  give  but  impressions  of  my  own  mind — fugi- 
tive impressions.  A  nation  may  be  rich  in  min- 
erals, may  be  rich  in  its  soil,  may  be  rich  in  nat- 
ural beauties,  it  may  be  rich  in  its  commerce ;  but 
unless  it  is  also  rich  in  great  men  there  is  an  es- 
sential ingredient  to  national  wealth  which  is  miss- 
ing. The  great  men  of  any  nation  are  like  moun- 
tains. They  attract  and  assemble  the  vitalising 
elements  in  the  heavens  and  distribute  and  direct 
them  in  the  valleys  and  the  plains  so  as  to  irrigate 
the  land  with  their  fertilising  qualities.  The 
world  without  them  would  be  either  a  desert  or  a 
morass.  Just  think  what  England  would  have 
been  without  its  great  men  and  women  of  thought 
and  of  action — no  Shakespeare,  no  Elizabeth,  no 
Milton,  no  Cromwell,  no  Locke,  no  Chatham,  no 
Wolsey,  no  Wesley — I  could  not  go  through  the 

49 


50  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

list  of  the  peaks  in  this  sublime  Himalayan  range 
of  great  men  and  great  minds.  England  without 
them  would  have  been  a  fen  of  stagnant  waters, 
and  Wales  without  the  great  men  of  whom  we 
have  here  but  representatives  would  have  been  a 
:wretched  swamp.  We  do  well,  then,  not  merely  to 
honour  the  memory  of  great  men,  but  to  remind 
the  men  and  women  of  to-day  of  their  existence 
and  of  their  work  by  recording  their  story  and 
their  achievements.  I  should  like  to  say  one  word, 
not  about  what  each  of  them  was  in  his  day,  but 
of  what  they  typify  in  themselves  as  a  whole. 

Welsh  Civilisation  an  ancient  one. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  me  in  going  through 
the  list  is  this :  how  old  is  the  civilisation  of  Wales. 
There  are  men,  I  believe — at  least,  I  have  heard 
of  them — who  seem  to  think  the  civilisation  of 
Wales  began,  let  us  say,  with  the  Taff  Vale  Rail- 
way— that  it  developed  into  its  present  glory  with 
the  Barry  Railway  and  the  Bute  Docks ;  that  even 
now  you  are  getting  into  the  shadows  when  you 
become  a  bona  fide  traveller,  and  that  if  you  go 
far  north  the  tribes  would  still  be  linked  in  the 
grip  of  savagery.  It  is  one  of  the  oldest  civilisa- 
tions in  Europe. 

Saint  David. 

Look  at  that  great  figure  (pointing  to  Dewi 
Sant).    He  was  none  the  less  a  saint  because  he 


THE  GREAT  MEN  OF  WALES     51 

was  a  controversialist.  I  do  not  bcliove  in  '*sant 
glasdwr."  *  He  had  a  real  virility  in  his  saintli- 
ness.  He  was  a  good  fighter,  and  none  the  less  a 
saint  for  that  reason.  What  does  he  typify,  this 
saint  of  the  sixth  century?  It  is  a  long  while  ago, 
the  sixth  century.  It  is  the  time  of  Arthur  and 
the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table,  1,300  years  ago, 
when  the  Saxons  were  destroyers  of  a  civilisation 
they  neither  comprehended  nor  appreciated.  In 
those  days  W^elshmen  had  a  King  who  inculcated 
a  new  code  of  honour,  that  restrained,  ennobled, 
exalted,  engentled  the  brute  forces  of  Europe  for 
centuries.  That  is  the  civilisation  of  Wales.  At 
the  same  time  it  had  a  saint  who  preached  with 
acceptance  amongst  the  people  of  the  hills  and  the 
valleys  of  this  land  ideals  which  no  human  civilisa- 
tion can  ever  perfectly  achieve,  but  the  struggle 
for  the  attainment  of  which  will  ever  purify  and 
elevate  the  race  that  undertakes  it.  That  is  what 
St.  David  means  and  reminds  us  of. 

Giraldus. 

Now  come  to  the  twelfth  century.  There  is 
Giraldus — a  complex,  tumultuous  character 
^vhich  completely  fascinates  anyone  who  meets  him 
in  the  pages  of  history — half  Norman,  half  Welsh, 
and  the  Welsh  corpuscles  in  his  blood  waging  in- 
cessant warfare  on  the  Norman  corpuscles.  When 
the  Welsh  armies  fighting  the  invaders  triumphed 
he  sat  down  in  his  cloisters  and  wrote  a  book  and 
*  A  milk-and-watery  saint. 


52  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

dreamed  about  things.  Then  the  Norman  rose 
and  triumphed  for  a  moment,  and  he  started  wan- 
dering off  from  home  after  fighting  for  dominion 
at  home.  You  have  the  Norman  and  the  Welsh- 
man fighting  in  the  same  book  which  he  wrote. 
First  of  all,  in  his  ''Itinerary,"  you  find  chapters 
of  the  most  glowing  eulogy  upon  Wales,  Welsh 
literature,  Welsh  poetry,  Welsh  music,  the  Welsh 
character.  That  was  written  by  Gerald  the 
Welshman,  the  grandson  of  Nest.  In  the  very 
following  chapter  there  are  words  of  the  most 
scornful  and  scathing  criticism,  destructive  of 
everything  Welsh,  its  character,  its  literature,  its 
everything.  That  was  written  by  Gerald  the  Nor- 
man, the  son  of  Du  Barri.  He  carried  it  so  far 
that  in  that  very  book  he  wrote  chapters  instruct- 
ing the  Norman  how  he  was  to  subdue  Wales,  and 
that  again  was  written  by  the  Norman.  He  then 
in  the  very  next  chapter  wrote  a  most  elaborate 
system  of  strategy  to  teach  the  Welshman  how  to 
rebel  against  the  Norman.  That  was  written  by 
Gerald  the  Welshman.  It  was  the  same  man.  He 
was  equally  sincere  in  both.  There  was  no  deceit. 
There  was  no  hypocrisy.  It  is  written  in  the  same 
book,  almost  at  the  same  time,  and  under  the  same 
signature — the  same  man.  He  had  only  more 
than  usual  of  the  inconsistency  of  all  great  men 
of  action,  because  the  greatest  men  of  action  are 
also  the  greatest  dreamers,  and  there  is,  therefore, 
that  wild  raging  conflict  in  each.  You  get  it  typi- 
fied in  that  fascinating  half -Norman,  half -Welsh- 
man who  came  from  Pembrokeshire.    That  is  Ger- 


THE  GREAT  MEN  OF  WALES  53 

aid,  and  a  very  attractive  person  he  is.  Why  do 
I  dwell  on  him?  I  will  tell  you.  H6  gives  a  com- 
plete, detailed  account  of  Wales  in  the  twelfth 
century.  He  wrote  the  very  best  journalistic  ma- 
terial said  to  have  been  written  at  that  time.  He 
was  a  journalist  and  an  impressionist,  and  he 
gives  an  account  of  an  itinerary  through  Wales. 
A  good  many  of  you,  if  not  most  of  you,  have  read 
it.  If  you  have  not  read  it,  read  it.  It  is  a  good 
thing  to  understand  the  country  one  is  living  in. 
He  also  gives  an  account  of  Ireland — but  I  advise 
you  not  to  read  that ! 

Early  Wales. 

What  account  does  he  give  of  Wales?  He  gives 
a  description  of  a  cultivated,  refined  people,  de- 
voted to  poetry  and  literature  and  music  and  re- 
ligion, devoted  to  the  needs  of  the  mind  and  of 
the  soul,  with  a  language  which  at  that  time  was 
a  fine  medium  for  the  most  subtle  expression  of 
human  thought,  a  people  who  believed  in  culture 
— not  with  a  "k" — a  real  culture.  That  is  the 
description  given  by  Gerald  of  Wales  at  that  pe- 
riod. And  if  some  of  you  have  read — I  have  no 
doubt  most  of  you  have — Green's  '' History  of 
England,"  one  of  the  most  charming  books  of  his- 
tory you  can  ever  dip  in,  you  will  find  therein  an 
account  of  that  period  and  the  influence  of  Welsh 
literature  upon  England,  how  the  new  poetry  of 
the  twelfth  centurj''  burst  forth  in  Wales  not  from 
one  bard  or  another,  but  from  a  nation  at  large. 


54  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

It  was  a  literary  people,  not  a  man  here  or  there, 
but  a  whole  nation — a  literary  nation.  That  was 
the  Wales  of  the  twelfth  century.  "The  new  en- 
thusiasm of  the  race,"  said  Mr.  Green,  "found  an 
admirable  means  of  utterance  in  its  tongue,  as 
real  a  development  of  the  old  Celtic  language 
heard  by  Caesar  as  the  Romance  tongues  are  de- 
velopments of  Caesar's  Latin,  but  which  at  a  far 
earlier  date  than  any  other  language  of  modern 
Europe  had  attained  to  definite  structure  and  to 
settled  literary  form."  That  is  what  Gerald  the 
Welshman  represents. 

German  Scholars  and  Welsh  Poetry. 

I  once  had  a  talk  with  a  German  professor.  He 
was  very  intelligent,  one  of  the  most  intellectual 
men  in  Germany,  and  he  said  to  me:  "We  have 
been  studying  the  literature  of  England,  and  we 
came  across  something  we  did  not  understand, 
something  we  could  not  account  for.  I  think,"  he 
said,  "it  was  in  the  twelfth  century."  He  added: 
"The  Teuton  has  never  been  a  master  of  lyrics, 
but  we  found  the  Saxon  of  England  in  those  days 
a  master  of  the  lyrical  form  of  poetry,  and  we 
said,  'Where  has  this  come  from?'  "  They  said 
"There  must  have  been  some  extraneous  influ- 
ence," and,  with  the  German  systematic  mind,  they 
followed  it  until  at  last  they  traced  it  to  Wales. 
With  Teutonic  thoroughness  they  mastered  the 
language,  and  they  discovered  a  treasure  of  song 
that   dazzled   them — something  they  had   never 


THE  GREAT  MEN  OF  WALES  55 

heard  of,  something  they  had  never  thought  of  as 
being  in  existence.  That  was  the  Wales  of  the 
twelfth  century,  overflowing  into  England  and  in- 
fluencing English  literature.  The  poetry  of  Wales 
was  hke  the  Severn,  rising  in  the  Welsh  hills,  de- 
riving its  source,  deriving  its  inspiration,  its  im- 
pulse, from  the  mountains  of  Wales,  overflowing 
into  the  plains  of  England,  then  winding  back  un- 
til now  it  forms  a  hitherto  unbridged  boundary 
between  England  and  Wales  at  the  very  point 
where  its  waters  are  merging  into  the  great  ocean 
that  laves  the  shores  of  many  continents. 

Dafydd  ap  Gwilym. 

Here  also  is  Dafydd  ap  Gwilym.  He  was  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  George  Borrow,  no  mean 
judge  of  literary  form  and  style,  said  of  Dafydd 
ap  Gwilym  that  he  always  considered  him  as  the 
greatest  poetical  genius  that  had  appeared  in  Eu- 
rope since  the  revival  of  literature.  While  George 
Borrow  had  reasons  perhaps  other  than  literary 
for  feeling  kindly  towards  Dafydd  ap  Gwilym,  all 
the  same  he  was  a  great  judge ;  and  Matthew  Ar- 
nold, who  was  a  much  sterner  critic,  places  Dafydd 
ap  Gwilym  amongst  the  great  poets  of  Europe. 
He  is  not  always  easy  to  read,  even  for  a  Welsh- 
man. He  is  as  difficult  to  read  as  Chaucer  is.  But 
when  you  take  the  trouble  there  are  few  things  in 
life  that  give  greater  joy  than  to  read  some  of  the 
poems  of  Dafydd  ap  Gwilym.  They  are,  undoubt- 
edly, among  the  things  of  beauty  that  are  a  joy  for 


56  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

ever.    They  are  as  beautiful  as  the  most  beautiful 
valley  in  Wales. 


Hyivel  Dda. 

Here  you  have  also  the  legislator — Hywel  Dda. 
It  is  worth  while  reading  his  laws  even  now — sa- 
gacious, shrewd,  showing  a  deep  insight  into  the 
motive  powers  of  human  nature,  and  withal  es- 
sentially humane.  The  laws  of  Hywel  Dda,  if  you 
put  them  side  by  side  with  the  laws  of  this  country 
a  century  ago — aye,  w^ith  the  laws  of  this  country 
even  now — show  a  greater  tenderness  for  human 
weakness  in  many  particulars,  and  they  might 
very  well  be  emulated  by  those  who  wish  to  see  a 
country  well  governed  and  contented. 

And  you  have  here  Henry  VII.,  the  first  of  a 
strong  dynasty  of  Sovereigns  who  founded  this, 
the  greatest  Empire  in  the  world.  He  was  the 
grandson  of  an  Anglesey  gentleman  farmer.  You 
have  the  greatest  hymnologist,  not  in  Wales,  but 
the  greatest  hymnologist  in  Britain — Williams  of 
Pantycelyn.  I  wish  it  were  possible  to  translate 
hymns,  to  translate  lyrics — ah,  when  it  is  done 
what  a  treat  is  in  store  for  our  English  fellow- 
countrymen!  They  do  not  realise  it.  It  is  the 
perfection  of  form  and  all  poetic  sentiment. 

The  Orators  —A  Plea. 

I  am  not  going  to  refer  to  the  others — to  the 
great  translator  of  the  Bible  into  Welsh,  for  in- 


THE  GREAT  MEN  OF  WALES     57 

stance;  but  I  should  like  to  say  one  word  about 
those  who  are  not  here.  The  greatest  period  in 
Welsh  history  is  represented  by  Williams  Panty- 
celyn,  but  he  was  only  representative  of  one  type 
that  made  modem  Wales.  I  wish  it  had  been  pos- 
sible to  have  had  a  type,  first  of  all,  of  those  who 
made  the  religious  revival  of  Wales,  and,  secondly, 
of  those  who  made  the  intellectual  revival  of 
Wales.  I  know  how  difficult  it  is.  When  you  come 
nearer  moflem  times  there  are  always  sectional 
prejudices  and  predilections  which  have  to  be  con- 
sidered and  reconciled.  But  if  there  is  any  dif- 
ficulty I  suggest  that  you  leave  it  to  be  settled  by  a 
spiritually-minded  man  who  does  not  belong  to 
any  sect — and  there  are  a  good  many  of  them  to  be 
found. 

At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  you  had  an  outburst 
of  oratory  of  the  first  order,  such  as  no  nation  had 
ever  crowded  before  into  a  half-century.  Oratory 
is  moving  speech,  not  moving  to  tears,  but  moving 
to  admiration.  That  may  be''  rhetoric,  it  may  be 
even  literature,  but  it  is  not  oratory.  Oratory  is 
the  moving  of  man  to  action.  Demosthenes  moved 
his  fellow-citizens  to  action  against  a  tyranny  that 
was  impending.  These  great  orators  moved  a 
people  from  darkness  to  the  path  that  led  to  the 
light,  from  bondage  to  the  rugged  road  that  leads 
to  a  true  freedom.  The  greater  the  oratory  the 
greater  the  movement,  the  more  prolonged  it  is, 
the  more  sustained  it  is,  and  no  orators  who  ever 
lived  moved  a  people  so  far  along  the  road — moved 


58  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

them  so  liigh  in  their  climb — as  those  great  gifted 
men  who  were  orators,  and  who  should  stand  as 
statuary  in  the  greatest  hall  that  ever  was  built 
to  represent  the  genius  of  man.  I  wish  there  were 
one  representative — one.  It  would  not  be  difficult ; 
they  would  not  quarrel.  There  (pointing)  is  a 
poet  whose  songs  in  his  life  everyone  profoundly 
disapproved  of.  There  are  bishops  who  did  not 
belong  to  their  particular  Church,  Catholic  and 
Anglican.  They  have  passed  beyond  the  veil, 
where  judgments  are  tolerant,  where  realities  only 
count,  and  where  Dafydd  ap  Gwilym  will  be 
greeted  by  Rowlands  Llangeitho  as  a  man  who 
talked  of  the  realities,  of  the  things  of  God. 

You  need  not  fear  to  put  them  here ;  let  us  have 
one  of  them  here,  just  one  of  the  greatest  men  that 
ever  thrilled  a  nation  from  death  into  life.  That 
is  my  plea.  Then  there  is  the  intellectual  revival 
of  Wales.  Those  colleges,  those  schools — they  did 
not  spring  from  the  earth.  There  were  great  men 
who  ploughed  and  harrowed  the  ground  and  sowed 
the  seed,  took  out  the  weeds,  and  tended  and  shep- 
herded the  growing  institutions.  Let  us  have  one 
of  those. 

I  do  not  say  the  representation  will  be  complete. 
It  is  difficult  to  make  complete  any  representation 
of  the  great  men  of  a  nation.  Great  men  provoke 
controversy.  Dafydd  ap  Gwilym  was  buried  for 
centuries  in  the  dust  of  obloquy.  It  is  but  recently 
that  he  has  risen  from  the  dead.  There  are  men 
I  dare  not  mention,  dead  men,  and,  although  dead, 
men  I  cannot  mention  in  an  assembly  which  takes 


THE  GREAT  MEN  OF  WALES  59 

diverse  views  about  them — martyrs,  social  think- 
ers, like  Robert  Owen..  They  are  men  who  fought 
and  suffered  for  religious  equality  and  freedom 
of  conscience.  It  is  difficult  to  bring  men  of  that 
kind  in,  because  thej^  fight  even  though  they  be 
dead.  Their  battle  is  not  over  yet :  they  are  still 
fighting.  They  are  fighting  for  something  that 
will  only  emerge  into  consent  centuries  hence. 
When  that  happens  they  will  have  their  place  in 
the  National  Valhalla,  and  a  high  place  it  will  be. 
But  let  them  work  their  way  there.  The  great  ora- 
tors of  Wales,  the  great  educational  reformers  of 
Wales,  have  surely  ceased  to  be  controversialists. 

Power  of  Little  Nations. 

One  or  two  w^ords  in  conclusion.  We  are  here 
to  honour  the  great  men  of  a  little  nation,  such 
a  small  nation  compared  with  the  nations  that  are 
on  the  arena  now.  And  yet  little  nations  were 
never  more  alive,  never  more  important  than  they 
are  to-day  in  this  conflict  of  gigantic  Empires.  If 
I  were  to  pass  a  criticism  upon  the  Allies  I  would 
say  that  while  fighting  for  little  nations  they  have 
never  fully  recognised  and  realised  their  value 
and  their  potential  strength.  They  have  never 
realised  quite  the  value  of  Belgium,  of  Serbia,  of 
Montenegro,  of  Bulgaria,  of  Greece,  of  Roumania. 
WTien  the  time  comes  to  write  the  story  of  this 
conflict  it  will  be  found  that  the  cardinal  blunder 
of  the  Allies  was  that  they  did  not  understand  the 
power,  the  potential  power,  of  the  little  nations. 
Britain  is  now  at  the  full  strength  of  an  Imperial 


60  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

tide,  and  whilst  the  tide  will  get  still  higher,  it 
will  never  submerge  the  joy  of  the  little  nation  in 
its  past,  in  its  present,  and  in  the  future  which 
it  conceives  for  itself.  The  small  nation  is  like 
a  little  stream.  It  does  not  cease  to  have  a  separ- 
ate existence  even  when  its  waters  are  merged  in 
the  great  river.  It  still  runs  along  the  same  val- 
ley, under  the  same  name,  draining  the  same 
watershed,  and  if  it  ceases  to  flow  and  to  gather 
the  waters  of  its  own  plain  the  great  river  would 
shrink,  the  great  river  would  lose  half  its  impetus 
and  the  purity  of  its  waters. 

That  great  river  is  now  in  flood.  A  storm  of 
righteous  anger  against  a  ghastly  wrong  has 
swept  over  the  land,  and  the  river  is  full  to  over- 
flowing. But  I  thank  God  for  the  fact  that  there 
are  cataracts  from  the  mountains  of  Wales  swell- 
ing now  the  torrent  of  angry  waters  that  will 
sweep  away  for  ever  the  oppression  which  has 
menaced  generations. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  SPEECHES 
AS  PRIME  MINISTER 


im- 


THE  NEW  GOVERNIMENT. 

EXTRaVCTS   FROM    A    SPEECH    DELIVERED    IN    THE    HOUSE    OF 
COMMONS   ON   BECOMING   PREMIER,   DECEMBER   19tH,    1916. 

I  APPEAR  before  the  House  of  Commons  to-day, 
with  the  most  terrible  responsibility  that  can  fall 
npon  the  shoulders  of  any  living  man,  as  the  chief 
adviser  of  the  Crown,  in  the  most  gigantic  war  in 
which  the  countrj^  has  ever  been  engaged — a  war 
upon  the  event  of  which  its  destiny  depends.  It  is 
the  greatest  war  ever  waged.  The  burdens  are 
the  heaviest  that  have  been  cast  upon  this  or  any 
other  country,  and  the  issues  which  hang  upon  it 
are  the  gravest  that  have  been  attached  to  any 
conflict  in  which  humanity  has  ever  been  involved. 

Allies'  Answer  to  the  Peace  Note. 

The  responsibilities  of  the  new  Government 
have  been  suddenly  accentuated  by  a  declaration 
made  by  the  German  Chancellor,  and  I  propose 
to  deal  with  that  at  once.  The  statement  made  by 
him  in  the  German  Reichstag  has  been  followed 
by  a  Note  presented  to  us  by  the  United  States  of 
America  without  any  note  or  comment.  The  an- 
swer that  will  be  given  by  the  Government  will  be 
given  in  full  accord  with  all  our  brave  Allies. 

63 


64  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Naturally,  there  has  been  an  interchange  of  views, 
not  upon  the  Note,  because  it  only  recently  ar- 
rived, but  upon  the  speech  which  propelled  it,  and 
inasmuch  as  the  Note  itself  is  practically  only  a 
reproduction,  or  certainly  a  paraphrase,  of  the 
speech,  the  subject-matter  of  the  Note  itself  has 
been  discussed  informally  between  the  Allies,  and 
I  am  very  glad  to  be  able  to  state  that  we  have 
each  of  us  separately  and  independently  arrived 
at  identical  conclusions. 

I  am  very  glad  that  the  first  answer  that  was 
given  to  the  statement  of  the  German  Chancellor 
was  given  by  France  and  by  Russia.  They  have 
the  unquestionable  right  to  give  the  first  answer 
to  such  an  invitation.  The  enemy  is  still  on  their 
soil;  their  sacrifices  have  been  greater.  The  an- 
swer they  have  given  has  already  appeared  in  all 
the  papers,  and  I  simply  stand  here  to-day,  on 
behalf  of  the  Government,  to  give  clear  and  defi- 
nite support  to  the  statement  which  they  have 
already  made.  Let  us  examine  what  the  state- 
ment is,  and  examine  it  calmly.  Any  man,  or  set 
of  men,  who  wantonly,  or  without  sufficient  cause, 
prolonged  a  terrible  conflict  like  this  would  have 
on  their  soul  a  crime  that  oceans  could  not  cleanse. 
Upon  the  other  hand  it  is  equally  true  that  any 
man,  or  set  of  men,  who  out  of  a  sense  of  weari- 
ness or  despair  abandoned  the  struggle  without 
achieving  the  high  purpose  for  which  we  had  en- 
tered into  it,  would  be  guilty  of  the  costliest  act 
of  poltroonery  ever  perpetrated  by  any  states- 
man.   I  should  like  to  quote  the  very  well  known 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  65 

words  of  Abraham  Lincoln  under  similar  condi- 
tions : 

''We  accepted  this  war  for  an  object,  and  a 
worthy  object,  and  the  war  will  end  when  that 
object  is  attained.  Under  God  I  hope  it  will  never 
end  until  that  time." 

Are  we  likely  to  achieve  that  object  by  accepting 
the  invitation  of  the  German  Chancellor  f  That  is 
the  only  question  we  have  to  put  to  ourselves. 
There  has  been  some  talk  about  proposals  of 
peace.  What  are  the  proposals  ?  There  are  none. 
To  enter  into  a  conference  at  the  invitation  of 
Germany,  proclaiming  herself  victorious,  without 
any  knowledge  of  the  proposals  she  intends  to 
make,  is  to  put  our  heads  into  a  noose  with  the 
rope  end  in  the  hands  of  Germany. 

''Taken  in  once." 

This  country  is  not  altogether  without  experi- 
ence in  these  matters.  This  is  not  the  first  time 
we  have  fought  a  great  military  despotism  that 
was  overshadowing  Europe,  and  it  will  not  be  the 
first  time  we  shall  have  helped  to  overthrow  mili- 
tary despotism.  We  have  an  uncomfortable  his- 
torical memory  of  these  things,  and  we  can  recall 
that  when  one  of  the  greatest  of  these  despots 
had  a  purpose  to  serve  in  the  working  of  his 
nefarious  schemes,  his  favourite  device  was  to 
appear  in  the  garb  of  the  angel  of  peace.  He 
usually    appeared    under    two    conditions — first, 


66  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

when  he  wished  for  time  to  assimilate  his  con- 
quests, or  to  reorganise  his  forces  for  fresh  con- 
quests; and,  secondly,  when  his  subjects  showed 
symptoms  of  fatigue  and  war  weariness.  Invari- 
ably the  appeal  was  made  in  the  name  of  human- 
ity; and  he  demanded  an  end  to  bloodshed  at 
which  he  professed  himself  to  be  horrified,  but  for 
which  he  himself  was  mainly  responsible.  Our 
ancestors  were  taken  in  once,  and  bitterly  did  they 
and  Europe  rue  it.  The  time  was  devoted  to  reor- 
ganising his  forces  for  a  deadlier  attack  th=an  ever 
upon  the  liberties  of  Europe. 

Bestitution,  Beparation,  Guarantees. 

Examples  of  that  kind  cause  us  to  regard  this 
Note  with  a  considerable  measure  of  reminiscent 
disquiet.  We  feel  that  we  ought  to  know,  before 
we  can  give  favourable  consideration  to  such  an 
invitation,  that  Germany  is  prepared  to  accede  to 
the  only  terms  on  which  it  is  possible  for  peace  to 
be  obtained  and  maintained  in  Europe.  What 
are  those  terms'?  They  have  been  repeatedly 
stated  by  all  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  Allies. 
My  right  hon.  friend  has  stated  them  repeatedly 
here  and  outside : 

''Restitution,  reparation,  guarantees  against 
repetition. ' ' 

Let  me  repeat  again — complete  restitution,  full 
reparation,  effectual  guarantees.  Did  the  German 
Chancellor  use  a  single  phrase  to  indicate  that  he 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  67 

was  prepared  to  concede  such  terms?  Was  there 
a  hint  of  restitution?  Was  there  aliy  suggestion 
of  reparation?  Was  there  any  indication  of  any 
security  for  the  future  that  this  outrage  on  civilis- 
ation wouki  not  be  again  perpetrated  at  the  first 
profitable  opportunity?  The  very  substance  and 
style  of  the  speech  constitute  a  denial  of  peace  on 
the  only  terms  on  which  peace  is  possible.  He  is 
not  even  conscious  now  that  Germany  has  com- 
mitted any  offence  against  the  rights  of  free  na- 
tions.   Listen  to  this  from  the  Note : 

''Not  for  an  instant  have  they"  (they  being  the 
Central  Powers)  ''swerved  from  the  conviction 
that  the  respect  of  rights  of  other  nations  is  not 
in  any  degree  incompatible  with  their  own  rights 
and  legitimate  interests." 

When  did  they  discover  that  ?  WTiere  was  the  re- 
spect for  the  rights  of  other  nations  in  Belgium 
and  Serbia?  Oh,  that  was  self-defence!  Menaced, 
I  suppose,  by  the  overwhelming  armies  of  Bel- 
gium, the  Germans  had  been  intimidated  into  in- 
vading that  country,  to  the  burning  of  Belgian 
cities  and  villages,  to  the  massacring  of  thousands 
of  inhabitants,  old  and  young,  to  the  carrying  of 
the  survivors  into  bondage;  yea,  and  they  were 
carrying  them  into  slavery  at  the  very  moment 
when  this  precious  Note  was  being  written  about 
the  unswerving  conviction  as  to  the  respect  of  the 
rights  of  other  nations !  I  suppose  these  outrages 
are  the  legitimate  interest  of  Germany?  We  must 
know.    That  is  not  the  mood  of  peace.    If  excuses 


68  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

of  this  kind  for  palpable  crimes  can  be  put  for- 
ward two  and  a  half  years  after  the  exposure  by 
grim  facts  of  the  guarantee,  is  there,  I  ask  in  all 
solemnity,  any  guarantee  that  similar  subterfuges 
will  not  be  used  in  the  future  to  overthrow  any 
treaty  of  peace  you  may  enter  into  with  Prussian 
militarism?  This  Note  and  that  speech  prove  that 
not  yet  have  they  learned  the  very  alphabet  of 
respect  for  the  rights  of  others.  Without  repara- 
tion, peace  is  impossible.  Are  all  these  outrages 
against  humanity  on  land  and  on  sea  to  be  liqui- 
dated by  a  few  pious  phrases  about  humanity?  Is 
there  to  be  no  reckoning  for  them?  Are  we  to 
grasp  the  hand  that  perpetrated  these  atrocities  in 
friendship  without  any  reparation  being  tendered 
or  given  ?  I  am  told  that  we  are  to  begin,  Germany 
helping  us,  to  exact  reparation  for  all  future  vio- 
lence committed  after  the  war.  We  have  begun 
already.  It  has  already  cost  us  so  much,  and  we 
must  exact  it  now  so  as  not  to  leave  such  a  grim  in- 
heritance to  our  children.  Much  as  w^e  all  long  for 
peace,  deeply  as  we  are  horrified  with  war,  this 
Note  and  the  speech  which  propelled  it  afford  us 
small  encouragement  and  hope  for  an  honourable 
and  lasting  compact. 

A  Bad  Neighbour. 

What  hojDe  is  there  given  by  that  speech  that 
the  whole  root  and  cause  of  this  great  bitterness, 
the  arrogant  spirit  of  the  Prussian  military  caste, 
will  not  be  as  dominant  as  ever  if  we  patch  up  a 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  69 

peace  now?  Why,  the  very  speech  in  which  these 
peace  suggestions  are  made  resounds  with  the 
boasts  of  Prussian  military  triumphs  of  victory. 
It  is  a  long  pa^an  over  the  victory  of  Von  Hinden- 
burg  and  his  legions.  This  very  appeal  for  peace 
is  delivered  ostentatiously  from  the  triumphant 
chariot  of  Prussian  militarism. 

We  must  keep  a  steadfast  eye  upon  the  purpose 
for  which  we  entered  the  war,  otherwise  the  great 
sacrifices  we  have  been  making  will  be  all  in  vain. 
The  German  Note  states  that  it  was  for  the  defence 
of  their  existence  and  the  freedom  of  national 
development  that  the  Central  Powers  were  con- 
strained to  take  up  arms.  Such  phrases  cannot 
even  deceive  those  who  pen  them.  They  are  in- 
tended to  delude  the  German  nation  into  support- 
ing the  designs  of  the  Prussian  military  caste. 
"WTioever  wishes  to  put  an  end  to  their  existence 
and  the  freedom  of  their  national  development? 
We  welcomed  their  development  as  long  as  it  was 
on  the  paths  of  peace.  The  greater  their  devel- 
opment upon  that  road,  the  more  will  all  humanity 
be  enriched  by  their  efforts.  That  was  not  our 
design,  and  it  is  not  our  purpose  now.  The  Allies 
entered  this  war  to  defend  themselves  against  the 
aggression  of  the  Prussian  military  domination, 
and  having  begun  it,  they  must  insist  that  it  can 
only  end  with  the  most  complete  and  effective 
guarantee  against  the  possibility  of  that  caste 
ever  again  disturbing  the  peace  of  Europe.  Prus- 
sia, since  she  got  into  the  hands  of  that  caste,  has 
been  a  bad  neighbour,  arrogant,  threatening,  bully- 


70  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

ing,  litigious,  shifting  boundaries  at  her  will,  tak- 
ing one  fair  field  after  another  from  weaker  neigh- 
bours, and  adding  them  to  her  own  domain,  with 
her  belt  ostentatiously  full  of  weapons  of  offence, 
and  ready  at  a  moment's  notice  to  use  them.  She 
has  always  been  an  unpleasant,  disturbing  neigh- 
bour, and  no  wonder  that  the  Prussians  got  thor- 
oughly on  the  nerves  of  Europe.  There  was  no 
peace  near  where  they  dwelt. 

An  Offence  against  the  Law  of  Nations. 

It  is  difficult  for  those  who  were  fortunate 
enough  to  live  thousands  of  miles  away  to  under- 
stand what  it  has  meant  to  those  who  lived  near 
their  boundaries.  Even  here,  with  the  protec- 
tion of  the  broad  seas  between  us,  we  know  what  a 
disturbing  factor  the  Prussians  were  with  their 
constant  naval  menace,  but  even  we  can  hardly 
realise  what  it  has  meant  to  France  and  to  Russia. 
Several  times  within  the  lifetime  of  this  genera- 
tion there  were  threats  directed  at  them  which 
presented  the  alternative  of  war  or  humiliation. 
There  were  many  of  us  who  hoped  that  internal 
influence  in  Germany  would  have  been  strong 
enough  to  check  and  ultimately  to  eliminate  this 
hectoring.  All  our  hopes  proved  illusory,  and 
now  that  this  great  war  has  been  forced  by  the 
Prussian  military  leaders  upon  France,  Russia, 
Italy,  and  ourselves,  it  would  be  folly,  it  would  be 
cruel  folly,  not  to  see  to  it  that  this  swashbuckling 
through  the  streets  of  Europe  to  the  disturbance 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  71 

of  all  harmless  and  peaceful  citizens,  shall  be  dealt 
with  now  as  an  offence  against  the  law  of  nations. 
The  mere  word  that  led  Belgium  to  her  own  de- 
stiTiction  will  not  satisfy  Europe  any  more.  We 
all  believed  it.  W^e  all  trusted  it.  It  gave  way  at 
the  first  pressure  of  temptation,  and  Europe  has 
been  plunged  into  this  vortex  of  blood.  We  wdll, 
therefore,  wait  until  we  hear  what  terms  and  guar- 
antees the  German  Government  offer  other  than 
those,  better  than  those,  surer  than  those  which 
she  so  lightly  broke ;  and  meanwhile  we  shall  put 
our  trust  in  an  unbroken  Army  rather  than  in 
a  broken  faith. 

No  Speedy  Victory. 

For  the  moment,  I  do  not  think  it  would  be 
advisable  for  me  to  add  anything  upon  this  par- 
ticular invitation.  A  formal  reply  will  be  deliv- 
ered by  the  Allies  in  the  course  of  the  next  few 
days.  I  shall  therefore  proceed  with  the  other 
part  of  the  task  which  I  have  in  front  of  me.  WThat 
is  the  urgent  task  in  front  of  the  Government?  To 
complete  and  make  even  more  effective  the  mo- 
bilisation of  all  our  national  resources,  so  as  to 
enable  the  nation  to  bear  the  strain,  however  pro- 
longed, and  to  march  through  to  victory,  however 
leng-thy  and  however  exhausting  may  be  tlie  jour- 
ney. It  is  a  gigantic  task,  and  let  me  give  this 
word  of  warning :  If  there  be  any  who  have  given 
their  confidence  to  the  new  Administration  in  ex- 
pectation of  a  speedy  victory,  they  will  be  doomed 


72  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

to  disappointment.  I  am  not  going  to  paint  a 
gloomy  picture  of  the  military  situation — if  I  did, 
it  would  not  be  a  true  picture — but  I  must  paint 
a  stern  picture,  because  that  accurately  represents 
the  facts.  I  have  always  insisted  on  the  nation 
being  taught  to  realise  the  actual  facts  of  this 
war.  I  have  attached  enormous  importance  to 
that  at  the  risk  of  being  characterised  as  a  pessi- 
mist. I  believe  that  a  good  many  of  our  misun- 
derstandings have  arisen  from  exaggerated  views 
which  have  been  taken  about  successes  and  from 
a  disposition  to  treat  as  trifling  real  set-backs.  To 
imagine  that  you  can  only  get  the  support  and  the 
help,  and  the  best  help,  of  a  strong  people  by  con- 
cealing difficulties  is  to  show  a  fundamental  mis- 
conception. The  British  people  possess  as  sweet 
a  tooth  as  anybody,  and  they  like  pleasant  things 
put  on  the  table,  but  that  is  not  the  stuff  that  they 
have  been  brought  up  on.  That  is  not  what  the 
British  Empire  has  been  nourished  on.  Britain 
has  never  shown  at  its  best  except  when  it  was 
confronted  with  a  real  danger  and  understood  it. 

The  Worst  Aspect. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  look  at  the  worst.  The 
Roumanian  blunder  was  an  unfortunate  one,  but 
at  w^orst  it  prolongs  the  war;  it  does  not  alter  the 
fundamental  facts  of  the  war.  I  cannot  help  hop- 
ing that  it  may  even  have  a  salutary  effect  in  call- 
ing the  attention  of  the  Allies  to  obvious  defects 
in  their  organisation,  not  merely  the  organisation 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  73 

of  each  but  the  organisation  of  the  whole,  and  if  it 
does  that  and  braces  them  up  to  fresh  effort  it  may 
prove,  bad  as  it  is,  a  blessing.  That  is  the  worst. 
That  has  been  a  real  set-back.  It  is  the  darkest 
cloud — and  it  is  a  cloud  that  appeared  on  a  clear- 
ing horizon.  We  are  doing  our  best  to  make  it  im- 
possible that  that  disaster  should  lead  to  w^orse. 
That  is  why  w^e  have  taken  in  the  last  few  days 
veiy  strong  action  in  Greece.  We  mean  to  take  no 
risks  there.  We  have  decided  to  take  definite  and 
decisive  action,  and  I  think  it  has  succeeded.  We 
have  decided  also  to  recognise  the  agents  of  that 
great  Greek  statesman,  M.  Venizelos. 

The  New  Army. 

I  wanted  to  clear  out  of  the  way  what  I  regarded 
as  the  worst  features  in  the  military  situation, 
but  I  should  like  to  say  one  word  about  the  lesson 
of  the  fighting  on  the  Western  front — not  about 
the  military  strategy,  but  about  the  significance 
of  the  whole  of  that  great  struggle,  one  of  the 
greatest  struggles  ever  waged  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  It  is  full  of  encouragement  and  of 
hope.  Just  look  at  it !  An  absolutely  new  Army ! 
The  old  had  done  its  duty  and  spent  itself  in  the 
achievement  of  that  great  task.  This  is  a  new 
Army.  But  a  year  ago  it  was  ore  in  the  earth  of 
Britain,  yea,  and  of  Ireland.  It  became  iron.  It 
has  passed  through  a  fiery  furnace,  and  the  enemy 
knows  that  it  is  now  fine  steel.  An  absolutely  new 
Army,  new  men,  new  officers  taken  from  schools. 


74  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

from  colleges,  from  comiting-houses,  never  trained 
to  war,  never  thought  of  war,  many  of  them  per- 
haps never  handlmg  a  weapon  of  war,  generals 
never  given  the  oj)portunity  of  handling  great 
masses  of  men.  Some  of  ns  had  seen  the  manoeu- 
vres. A  division  which  is  now  set  to  attack  a  small 
village  is  more  than  our  generals  ever  had  the  op- 
portunity of  handling  before  the  war.  Compared 
with  the  great  manoeuvres  on  the  Continent,  they 
were  toy  manoeuvres.  And  yet  this  New  Army, 
new  men,  new  officers,  generals  new  to  this  kind 
of  work,  they  have  faced  the  greatest  army  in  the 
world,  the  greatest  army  the  world  has  ever  seen, 
the  best  equipped  and  the  best  trained,  and  they 
have  beaten  them,  beaten  them,  beaten  them !  Bat- 
tle after  battle,  day  after  day,  week  after  week! 
From  the  strongest  entrenchments  ever  devised 
by  human  skill  they  have  driven  them  out  by  val- 
our, by  valour  which  is  incredible  when  you  read 
the  story  of  it. 

There  is  something  which  gives  you  hope,  which 
fills  you  with  pride  in  the  nation  to  which  they  be- 
long. It  is  a  fact,  and  it  is  a  fact  full  of  signifi- 
cance for  us — and  for  the  foe.  It  is  part  of  his 
reckoning  as  well.  He  has  seen  that  Army  grow 
and  proved  under  his  very  eyes.  A  great  French 
general  said  to  me,  ''Your  Army  is  a  new  army. 
It  must  learn,  not  merely  generals,  not  merely  of- 
ficers, but  the  men  must  learn  not  merely  what  to 
do,  but  how  and  when  to  do  it."  They  are  becom- 
ing veterans,  and  therefore,  basing  our  confidence 
upon  these  facts,  I  am  as  convinced  as  I  ever  was 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  75 

of  ultimate  victory  if  the  nation  proves  as  steady, 
as  valorous,  as  ready  to  sacrifice  and  as  ready  to 
learn  and  to  endure  as  that  great  Army  of  our 
sons  in  France. 


Controversy  placed  on  one  Side. 

I  should  like  now  to  say  a  word  or  two  about  the 
Government  itself,  and,  in  doing  so,  I  am  anxious 
to  avoid  all  issues  that  excite  irritation  or  con- 
troversy or  disunion.  This  is  not  a  time  for  that. 
But  it  must  not  be  assumed,  if  I  do  so,  that  I  ac- 
cept as  complete  the  accounts  which  have  been 
given  of  the  way  in  which  the  Government  was 
formed.  My  attitude  towards  the  policy  of  the 
late  Administration,  of  which  I  was  a  member  and 
for  all  whose  deeds  I  am  just  as  responsible  as 
any  one  of  them,  has  been  given  in  letters  and 
memoranda,  and  my  reasons  for  leaving  it  have 
also  been  given  in  a  letter.  If  it  were  necessary, 
I  should  on  personal  grounds  have  welcomed  its 
publication,  but  I  am  convinced  that  controversies 
as  to  the  past  will  not  help  us  as  to  the  future,  and 
therefore,  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,  I  place  them 
on  one  side  and  go  on  with  what  I  regard  as  the 
business  of  the  Government  under  these  trying 
conditions.  I  should  like  to  say  something,  first  of 
all,  as  to  the  unusual  character  and  composition 
of  the  Government  as  an  executive  body. 


76  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Constitution  of  the  New  Government. 

The  House  has  realised  that  there  has  been  a 
separation  between  the  functions  of  the  Prime 
Minister  and  the  Leader  of  the  House.  That  was 
because  we  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  more 
than  any  one  man,  whatever  his  energy  or  physical 
strength  might  be,  could  do  to  undertake  both 
functions  in  the  middle  of  a  great  war.  The  task 
of  the  Leader  of  the  House  is  a  very  anxious  and 
absorbing  task,  even  in  war.  I  have  not  been  able 
to  attend  the  House  very  much  myself  during  the 
last  two  or  three  years,  but  I  have  been  here  often 
enough  to  realise  that  the  task  of  the  Leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons  is  not  a  sinecure  even  in  a  war 
— friends  of  mine  took  care  that  it  should  not  be 
so! 

So  much  for  that  point.  Now  there  are  three 
characteristics  in  the  present  Administration  in 
which  it  may  be  said  it  has  departed,  perhaps, 
from  precedent.  First  of  all,  there  is  the  concen- 
tration of  the  Executive  in  a  very  few  hands ;  the 
second  is  the  choosing  of  men  of  administrative 
and  business  capacity  rather  than  men  of  Parlia- 
mentary experience,  where  we  were  unable  to  ob- 
tain both,  for  the  headship  of  a  great  Depart- 
ment ;  and  the  third  is  a  franker  and  fuller  recog- 
nition of  the  partnership  of  Labour  in  the  Gov- 
ernment of  this  country.  No  Government  that  has 
ever  been  formed  to  rule  this  country  has  had  such 
a  number  of  men  who  all  their  lives  have  been  as- 
sociated with  labour  and  with  the  labour  organisa- 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  77 

tions  of  this  country.  We  realised  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  conduct  war  without  getting  the  com- 
plete and  unqualified,  support  of  Labour,  and  we 
were  anxious  to  obtain  their  assistance  and  their 
counsel  for  the  purpose  of  the  conduct  of  the  war. 

*' Peace  Structures." 

The  fact  that  this  is  a  different  kind  of  organ- 
isation from  any  that  preceded  it  is  not  necessar- 
ily a  criticism  upon  its  predecessors.  They  were 
peace  stiiictures.  They  were  organised  for  a  dif- 
ferent purpose  and  a  different  condition  of  things. 
The  kind  of  craft  you  have  for  river  or  canal  traf- 
fic is  not  exactly  the  kind  of  vessel  you  construct 
for  the  high  seas.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  old 
Cabinets — I  am  not  referring  to  the  last  Cabinet, 
I  am  referring  to  the  old  system  of  Cabinets, 
where  the  heads  of  every  Department  were  repre- 
sented inside  the  Cabinet — I  have  no  doubt  that 
the  old  Cabinets  were  better  adapted  for  naviga- 
ting the  Parliamentary  river  with  its  shoals  and 
shifting  sands,  and  perhaps  for  a  cruise  in  home 
waters.  But  a  Cabinet  of  twenty-three  is  rather 
top-heavy  for  a  gale.  I  do  not  say  that  this  par- 
ticular craft  is  best  adapted  for  Parliamentary 
navigation,  but  I  am  convinced  it  is  the  best  for 
the  war,  in  which  you  want  quick  decision  above 
everything. 

Look  at  the  last  two  and  a  half  years.  I  am  not 
referring  to  what  has  happened  in  this  country. 
When  I  say  these  things  I  would  rather  thp  House 


78  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

of  Commons  looked  at  the  war  as  a  whole,  and  took 
the  concerns  of  the  Allies  as  a  whole.  We  are 
all  perfectly  certain,  and  I  shall  have  the  assent 
of  my  right  hon.  friend  (Mr.  Asquith)  in  this,  that 
the  Allies  have  suffered  disaster  after  disaster 
through  tardiness  of  decision  and  action,  very 
largely  for  reasons  I  shall  give  later  on.  I  know 
in  this  I  am  in  complete  agreement  with  my  right 
hon.  friend.  It  is  true  that  in  a  multitude  of  coun- 
sellors there  is  wisdom.  That  was  written  for 
Oriental  countries  in  peace  times.  You  cannot  run 
a  war  with  a  Sanhedrim.  That  is  the  meaning  of 
the  Cabinet  of  five,  with  one  of  its  members  doing 
sentry  duty  outside,  manning  the  walls,  and  de- 
fending the  Council  Chamber  against  attack  while 
we  are  trying  to  do  our  work  inside. 


The  Food  Problem. 

The  problem  is  a  double  one ;  it  is  one  of  distri- 
bution and  of  production.  In  respect  of  both,  we 
must  call  upon  the  people  of  this  country  to  make 
real  sacrifices,  but  it  is  essential,  when  we  do  so, 
that  the  sacrifices  should  be  equal.  The  overcon- 
sumption  by  the  affluent  must  not  be  allowed  to 
create  a  shortage  for  the  less  well-to-do.  I  am 
sure  we  can  depend  upon  men  and  women  of  all 
conditions  to  play  the  game.  Any  sort  of  conceal- 
ment hurts  the  nation.  It  hurts  it  when  it  is  fight- 
ing for  its  life.  Therefore,  we  must  appeal  to  the 
nation  as  a  whole,  men  and  women,  to  assist  us  to 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  79 

so  distribute  our  resources  that  there  shall  be  no 
man,  woman,  or  child  who  will  be  s,uffering  from 
hunger  because  someone  else  has  been  getting  too 
much. 

Wlien  you  come  to  production,  every  available 
square  yard  must  be  made  to  produce  food.  The 
labour  available  for  tillage  should  not  be  turned 
to  more  ornamental  purposes  until  the  food  neces- 
sities of  the  country  have  been  adequately  safe- 
guarded. The  best  use  must  be  made  of  land  and 
of  labour  to  increase  the  food  supplies  of  this 
country — com,  potatoes,  and  all  kinds  of  food 
products.  All  those  who  have  the  opportunity 
must  feel  it  is  their  duty  to  the  State  to  assist 
in  producing  and  in  contributing  to  the  common 
stock,  upon  which  everybody  can  draw.  If  they 
do  this,  we  shall  get  food  without  any  privation, 
without  any  want,  everybody  having  plenty  of 
the  best  and  healthiest  food.  By  that  means  and 
that  means  alone  will  the  nation  be  able  to  carry 
through  the  war  to  that  triumphal  issue  to  which 
we  are  all  looking  forvvard. 

A  National  Lent. 

It  means  sacrifice.  But  what  sacrifice?  Talk  to 
a  man  who  has  returned  from  the  horrors  of  the 
Somme,  or  who  has  been  through  the  haunting 
wretchedness  of  a  winter  campaign,  and  you  will 
know  something  of  what  those  gallant  men  are  en- 
during for  their  countiy.  They  are  enduring 
much,  they  are  hazarding  all,  whilst  we  are  living 


80  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

in  comfort  and  security  at  home.  You  cannot 
have  absolute  equality  of  sacrifice.  In  a  war  that 
is  impossible,  but  you  can  have  equal  readiness 
to  sacrifice  from  all.  There  are  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands who  have  given  their  lives,  there  are  mil- 
lions who  have  given  up  comfortable  homes  and 
exchanged  them  for  a  daily  communion  with  death. 
Multitudes  have  given  up  those  whom  they  love 
best.  Let  the  nation  as  a  whole  place  its  comforts, 
its  luxuries,  its  indulgences,  its  elegances  on  a  na- 
tional altar  consecrated  by  such  sacrifices  as  these 
men  have  made.  Let  us  proclaim  during  the  war 
a  national  Lent.  The  nation  will  be  better  and 
stronger  for  it,  mentally  and  morally  as  well  as 
physically.  It  will  strengthen  its  fibre,  it  will  en- 
noble its  spirit.  Without  it  we  shall  not  get  the 
full  benefit  of  this  struggle.  Our  armies  might 
drive  the  enemy  out  of  the  battered  villages  of 
France,  across  the  devastated  plains  of  Belgium; 
they  might  hurl  them  across  the  Rhine  in  battered 
disarray ;  but  unless  the  nation  as  a  whole  shoul- 
ders part  of  the  burden  of  victory  it  will  not  profit 
by  the  triumph,  for  it  is  not  what  a  nation  gains, 
it  is  what  a  nation  gives  that  makes  it  great. 

Ireland. 

I  wish  it  were  possible  to  remove  the  misunder- 
standing between  Britain  and  Ireland  which  has 
for  centuries  been  such  a  source  of  misery  to  the 
one  and  of  embarrassment  and  weakness  to  the 
other.    Apart  from  the  general  interest  which  I 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  81 

have  taken  in  it,  I  should  consider  that  a  war 
measure  of  the  first  importance.  I  should  consider 
it  a  great  victoiy  for  the  Allied  Forces,  some- 
thing that  would  give  strength  to  the  armies  of 
the  Allies.  I  am  convinced  now  that  it  is  a  mis- 
understanding, partly  racial  and  partly  religious. 
It  is  to  the  interest  of  both  to  have  this  misunder- 
standing removed,  but  there  seems  to  have  been 
some  evil  chance  that  frustrated  eveiy  effort  made 
for  the  achievement  of  better  relations.  I  wish 
that  that  misunderstanding  could  be  removed. 

I  tried  once.  I  did  not  succeed.  The  fault  was 
not  entirely  on  one  side.  I  felt  the  whole  time  that 
we  were  moving  in  an  atmosphere  of  nervous  sus- 
picion and  distrust,  pervasive,  universal,  of  every- 
thing and  eveiybody.  I  was  drenched  with  sus- 
picion of  Irishmen  by  Englishmen  and  of  Eng- 
lishmen by  Irishmen,  and,  worst  and  most  fatal 
of  all,  suspicion  of  Irishmen  by  Irishmen.  It  was 
a  quagmire  of  distrust  which  clogged  the  foot- 
steps and  made  progress  impossible.  That  is  the 
real  enemy  of  Ireland.  If  that  could  be  slain,  I 
believe  that  it  would  accomplish  an  act  of  recon- 
ciliation that  would  make  Ireland  greater  and 
Britain  greater  and  would  make  the  United  King- 
dom and  the  Empire  greater  than  they  ever  were 
before.  That  is  why  I  have  always  thought  and 
said  that  the  real  solution  of  the  Irish  problem  is 
largely  one  of  a  better  atmosphere.  I  am  speak- 
ing not  merely  for  myself  but  for  my  colleagues 
when  I  say  that  we  shall  strive  to  produce  that 
better  feeling.    We  shall  strive  by  every  means  to 


82  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

produce  that  atmosphere,  and  we  ask  men  of  all 
races  and  men  of  all  creeds  and  faiths  to  help  us, 
not  to  solve  a  political  question,  but  to  help  us  to 
do  something  that  will  be  a  real  contribution  to  the 
winning  of  the  war. 


The  Dominions. 

I  must  also  say  one  word  about  the  Dominions. 
Ministers  have  repeatedly  acknowledged  the 
splendid  assistance  which  the  Dominions  have 
given,  of  their  own  free  will,  to  the  old  country  in 
its  championship  of  the  cause  of  humanity.  The 
great  ideals  of  national  fair  play  and  justice  ap- 
peal to  the  Dominions  just  as  insistently  as  to  us. 
They  have  recognised  throughout  that  our  fight 
is  not  a  selfish  one,  and  that  it  is  not  merely  a  Eu- 
ropean quarrel,  but  that  there  are  great  world 
issues  involved  in  which  their  children  are  as  con- 
cerned as  our  children.  The  new  Administration 
are  as  full  of  gratitude  as  the  old  for  the  superb 
valour  which  our  kinsmen  have  sho\vn  in  so  many 
stricken  fields.  But  that  is  not  why  I  introduce 
the  subject  now.  I  introduce  the  subject  now  be- 
cause I  want  to  say  that  we  feel  the  time  has  come 
when  the  Dominions  ought  to  be  more  formally 
consulted  as  to  the  progress  and  course  of  the  war, 
as  to  the  steps  that  ought  to  be  taken  to  secure 
victory,  and  as  to  the  best  methods  of  garnering  in 
the  fruits  of  their  efforts  as  well  as  of  our  own. 
We  propose,  therefore,  at  an  early  date  to  sum- 
mon an  Imperial  Conference,  to  place  the  whole 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  83 

position  before  the  Dominions,  and  to  take  counsel 
with  them  as  to  what  further  action  they  and  we 
can  take  together  in  order  to  achieve  an  early  and 
complete  triumph  for  the  ideals  for  which  they 
and  we  have  so  superbly  fought. 

"A  Common  Front." 

As  to  our  relations  with  the  Allies — and  this  is 
the  last  topic  I  shall  refer  to — I  ventured  to  say 
earlier  in  the  year  that  there  were  two  things  we 
ought  to  seek  as  Allies :  the  first  was  unity  of  aim, 
and  the  other,  unity  of  action.  The  first  we  have 
achieved.  Never  have  Allies  worked  in  better  har- 
mony or  more  perfect  accord  than  the  Allies  in 
this  great  struggle.  There  has  been  no  friction 
and  there  has  been  no  misunderstanding.  But 
when  I  come  to  the  question  of  unity  of  action  I 
still  think  that  there  is  a  good  deal  left  to  be  de- 
sired. I  have  only  to  refer  to  the  incident  of  Rou- 
mania,  and  each  man  can  spell  out  for  himself 
what  I  mean.  The  enemy  have  two  advantages — 
two  supreme  advantages.  One  is  that  they  act  on 
internal  lines,  and  the  other  is  that  there  is  one 
great  dominant  power  that  practically  directs  the 
forces  of  all.  We  have  neither  of  these  advan- 
tages. We  must,  therefore,  achieve  the  same  end 
by  other  means.  The  advantages  we  possess  are 
advantages  which  time  improves.  No  one  can  say 
that  we  have  made  the  best  of  that  time.  There 
has  been  a  tardiness  of  decision  and  action.  I 
forget  who  said  about  Necker  that  he  was  like  a 


84  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

clock  that  was  always  too  slow.  There  is  a  little 
of  that  in  the  great  Alliance  clock — Belgium,  Ser- 
bia, Montenegro,  Roumania! 

Before  we  can  take  full  advantage  of  the  enor- 
mous resources  at  the  command  of  the  Allies, 
there  must  be  some  means  of  arriving  at  quicker 
and  readier  decisions,  and  of  carrying  them  out. 
I  believe  that  that  can  be  done,  and  if  we  quicken 
our  action  as  well  as  our  decisions  it  will  equalise 
the  conditions  more  than  we  have  succeeded  in 
doing  in  the  past.  There  must  be  more  consulta- 
tion, more  real  consultation,  between  the  men  who 
matter  in  the  direction  of  affairs.  There  must  be 
less  of  the  feeling  that  each  comitry  has  its  own 
front  to  look  after.  It  has  been  carried  so  far 
that  almost  each  Department  might  have  a  front 
of  its  own.  The  policy  of  a  common  front  must 
be  a  reality.  It  is  a  reality  on  the  other  side.  Aus- 
trian guns  are  helping  German  infantry,  and  Ger- 
man infantry  are  stiffening  Austrian  arms.  The 
Turks  are  helping  Germans  and  Austrians,  and 
Bulgarians  mix  with  all.  There  is  an  essential 
feeling  that  there  is  but  one  front,  and  I  believe 
we  have  to  get  that  more  and  more,  instead  of 
having  overwhelming  guns  on  one  side  and  bare 
breasts,  gallant  breasts,  on  the  other.  It  is  essen- 
tial for  the  Allies  not  merely  to  realise  that,  but 
to  carry  it  out  in  policy  and  action.  I  take  this 
opportunity  at  the  beginning  of  this  new  Admin- 
istration of  emphasising  that  point,  because  I  be- 
lieve it  is  an  essential  for  great  victory,  and  for 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  85 

the  curtailment  of  the  period  before  victory  ar- 
rives. / 

The  Issue  Higher  than  Party. 

I  end  with  one  personal  note,  for  which  I  hope 
the  House  will  forgive  me.  May  I  say,  and  I  say 
it  in  all  sincerity,  that  it  is  one  of  the  deepest  re- 
grets of  my  life  that  I  should  part  from  the  right 
hon.  gentleman  (Mr.  Asquith).  Some  of  his 
friends  know  how  I  strove  to  avert  it.  For  years 
I  served  under  the  right  hon.  gentleman,  and  I 
am  proud  to  say  so.  I  never  had  a  kinder  or  more 
indulgent  chief.  If  there  were  any  faults  of  tem- 
per, they  were  entirely  mine,  and  I  have  no  doubt  I 
must  have  been  difficult  at  times.  No  man  had 
greater  admiration  for  his  brilliant  intellectual 
attainments,  and  no  man  was  happier  to  serve 
under  him.  For  eight  years  we  differed  as  men 
of  such  different  temperaments  must  necessarily 
differ,  but  we  never  had  a  personal  quarrel,  in 
spite  of  serious  differences  in  policy;  and  it  was 
with  deep,  genuine  grief  that  I  felt  it  necessary  to 
tender  my  resignation  to  my  right  hon.  friend. 
But  there  are  moments  when  personal  and  party 
considerations  must  sink  into  absolute  insignifi- 
cance, and  if  in  this  War  I  have  given  scant  heed 
to  the  call  of  party, — and  so  I  have,  although  I 
have  been  as  strong  a  party  man  as  any  in  this 
House, — it  is  because  I  realised,  from  the  moment 
the  Prussian  cannon  hurled  death  at  a  peaceable 
and  inoffensive  little  country,  that  a  challenge  had 


86  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

been  sent  to  cmlisation  to  decide  an  issue  higher 
than  party,  deeper  than  party,  wider  than  all  par- 
ties— an  issue  upon  the  settlement  of  which  will 
depend  the  fate  of  men  in  this  world  for  genera- 
tions, when  existing  parties  will  have  fallen  like 
dead  leaves  on  the  highway.  Those  issues  are  the 
issues  that  I  want  to  keep  in  front  of  the  nation, 
so  that  we  shall  not  falter  or  faint  in  our  resolve. 
There  is  a  time  in  every  prolonged  and  fierce 
war,  in  the  passion  and  rage  of  the  conflict,  when 
men  forget  the  high  purpose  with  which  they  en- 
tered it.  This  is  a  struggle  for  international  right, 
international  honour,  international  good  faith — 
the  channel  along  which  peace,  honour,  and  good 
will  must  flow  amongst  men.  The  embankments 
laboriously  built  up  by  generations  of  men  against 
barbarism  have  been  broken,  and  had  not  the  might 
of  Britain  passed  into  the  breach,  Europe  would 
have  been  inundated  with  a  flood  of  savagery  and 
unbridled  lust  of  power.  The  plain  sense  of  fair 
play  amongst  nations,  the  growth  of  an  interna- 
tional conscience,  the  protection  of  the  weak 
against  the  strong  by  the  stronger,  the  conscious- 
ness that  justice  has  a  more  powerful  backing  in 
this  world  than  greed,  the  knowledge  that  any  out- 
rage upon  fair  dealing  between  nations,  great  or 
small,  will  meet  with  prompt  and  inevitable  chas- 
tisement— these  constitute  the  causeway  along 
which  humanity  was  progressing  sloM^ly  to  higher 
things.  The  trimnph  of  Prussia  would  sweep  it 
all  away  and  leave  mankind  to  struggle  helpless 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  87 

in  the  morass.  That  is  why,  since  this  war  be- 
gan, I  have  known  but  one  political  aim.  For  that 
I  have  fought  with  a  single  eye.  It  is  the  rescue 
of  mankind  from  the  most  overwhelming  catas- 
trophe that  has  ever  yet  menaced  its  well-being. 


A  SAFE  INVESTMENT. 

EXTRACTS  FROM   A   SPEECH   DELIVERED   AT  THE   GUILDHALL, 

AT  A  MEETING  HELD  TO  LAUNCH   THE  VICTORY  WAR  LOAN, 

JANUARY  11th,   1917. 

The  German  Trap. 

The  German  Kaiser  a  few  days  ago  sent  a  mes- 
sage to  liis  people  that  the  Allies  had  rejected  his 
peace  offer.  He  did  so  in  order  to  drug  those 
whom  he  can  no  longer  dragoon.  Where  are  those 
offers  1  We  have  asked  for  them.  We  have  never 
seen  them.  We  were  not  offered  terms;  we  were 
offered  a  trap  baited  with  fair  words.  They 
tempted  ns  once,  bnt  the  lion  has  his  eyes  open 
now.  We  have  rejected  no  terms  that  we  have 
ever  seen.  Of  course  it  would  suit  them  to  have 
peace  at  the  present  moment  on  their  own  terms. 
We  all  want  peace ;  but  when  we  get  it,  it  must  be  a 
real  peace.  The  Allied  Powers  separately,  and  in 
council  together,  have  come  to  the  same  conclu- 
sion. Knowing  well  what  war  means,  knowing 
especially  what  this  war  means  in  suffering,  in 
burdens,  in  horror,  they  have  decided  that  even 
war  is  better  than  peace — peace  at  the  Prussian 
price  of  domination  over  Europe.  We  made  that 
clear  in  our  reply  to  Germany;  we  made  it  still 
clearer  in  our  reply  to  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica.   Before  we  attempt  to  rebuild  the  temple  of 


A  SAFE  INVESTMENT  89 

peace  we  must  see  now  that  the  foundations  are 
solid.  They  were  built  before  upon  the  shifting 
sands  of  Prussian  faith;  henceforth,  when  the 
time  for  rebuilding  comes,  it  must  be  on  the  rook 
of  vindicated  justice. 

Determination  of  the  Allies. 

I  have  just  returned  from  a  Council  of  War  of 
the  four  great  Allied  countries  upon  whose  shoul- 
ders most  of  the  burden  of  this  terrible  war  falls. 
I  cannot  give  you  the  conclusions :  there  might  be 
useful  information  in  them  for  the  enemy.  There 
were  no  delusions  as  to  the  magnitude  of  our  task ; 
neither  were  there  any  doubts  about  the  result. 
All  felt  that  if  victory  were  difficult,  defeat  was 
impossible.  There  was  no  flinching,  no  waver- 
ing, no  faintheartedness,  no  infirmity  of  purpose. 
There  was  a  grim  resolution  that  at  all  costs  we 
must  achieve  the  high  aim  with  which  we  accepted 
the  challenge  of  the  Prussian  military  caste  and 
rid  Europe  and  the  world  of  its  menace  for  ever. 
No  country  could  have  refused  that  challenge 
without  loss  of  honour.  No  one  could  have  re- 
jected it  without  impairing  national  security.  No 
one  could  have  failed  to  take  it  up  without  forfeit- 
ing something  which  is  of  greater  value  to  every 
free  and  self-respecting  people  than  life  itself. 

Spirit  of  the  Borne  Conference. 

These  nations  did  not  enter  into  the  war  light- 
heartedly.    They  did  not  embark  upon  this  enter- 


90  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

prise  without  knowing  what  it  really  meant.  They 
were  not  induced  by  the  prospect  of  an  easy 
victory.  Take  this  country.  The  millions  of  our 
men  who  enrolled  in  the  Army  enlisted  after  the 
German  victories  of  August,  1914,  when  they 
knew  the  accumulative  and  concentrated  power  of 
the  German  military  machine.  That  is  when  they 
placed  their  lives  at  the  disposal  of  their  country. 
What  about  other  nations  ?  They  knew  what  they 
were  encountering,  that  they  were  fighting  an 
organisation  which  had  been  perfected  for  genera- 
tions by  the  best  brains  of  Prussia,  perfected  with 
one  purpose — the  subjugation  of  Europe.  And 
yet  they  faced  it.  Why  did  they  do  it?  I  passed 
through  hundreds  of  miles  of  the  beautiful  lands 
of  France  and  of  Italy,  and  as  I  did  so  I  asked 
myself  this  question :  Why  did  the  peasants  leave 
by  the  million  these  sunny  vineyards  and  corn- 
fields in  France — why  did  they  quit  these  enchant- 
ing valleys  in  Italy,  with  their  comfort  and  their 
security  and  their  calm — in  order  to  face  the 
dreary  and  wild  horrors  of  the  battlefield?  They 
did  it  for  one  purpose  and  one  purpose  only.  They 
were  not  driven  to  the  slaughter  by  kings.  These 
are  great  democratic  countries.  No  Government 
could  have  lasted  twenty-four  hours  that  had 
forced  them  into  an  abhorrent  war.  Of  their  own 
free  will  they  embarked  upon  it,  because  they 
knew  a  fundamental  issue  had  been  raised  which 
no  country  could  have  shirked  without  imperilling 
all  that  has  been  won  in  the  centuries  of  the  past 
and  all  that  remains  to  be  won  in  the  ages  of  the 


A  SAFE  INVESTMENT  91 

future.  That  is  why,  as  the  war  proceeds,  and  the 
German  pui-pose  becomes  more  manifest,  the  con- 
viction has  become  deeper  in  the  minds  of  these 
people  that  they  must  break  their  way  through 
to  victory  in  order  to  save  Europe  from  unspeak- 
able despotism.  That  was  the  spirit  which  ani- 
mated the  Allied  Conference  at  Rome  last  week. 


"Looking  to  Great  Britain." 

But  I  will  tell  you  one  thing  that  struck  me,  and 
strikes  me  more  and  more  each  time  that  I  visit 
the  Continent  and  attend  these  Conferences.  That 
is  the  increasing  extent  to  which  the  Allied  peoples 
are  looking  to  Great  Britain.  They  are  trusting 
to  her  rugged  strength,  to  her  great  resources. 
To  them  she  looks  like  a  great  tower  in  the  deep. 
She  is  becoming  more  and  more  the  hope  of  the 
oppressed  and  the  despair  of  the  oppressor,  and 
I  feel  more  and  more  confident  that  we  shall  not 
fail  the  people  who  put  their  trust  in  us.  When 
that  arrogant  Prussian  caste  flung  the  signature 
of  Britain  to  a  treaty  into  the  waste-paper  basket 
as  if  it  were  of  no  account,  they  knew  not  the  pride 
of  the  land  they  were  treating  with  such  insolent 
disdain.  They  know  it  now.  Our  soldiers  and 
sailors  have  taught  them  to  respect  it. 

You  have  heard  the  eloquent  account  of  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  of  the  achievements 
of  our  soldiers.  Our  sailors  are  gallantly  defend- 
ing the  honour  of  our  country  on  the  high  seas  of 
the  world.    They  have  strangled  the  enemy's  com- 


92  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

merce,  and  will  continue  to  do  so,  in  spite  of  all 
the  piratical  devices  of  the  foe.  In  1914  and  1915, 
for  two  years,  a  small,  ill-equipped  army  held  up 
the  veterans  of  Prussia  with  the  best  equipment 
in  Europe.  In  1916  they  hurled  them  back,  and 
delivered  a  blow  from  which  they  are  reeling.  In 
1917  the  armies  of  Britain  will  be  more  f  oraiidable 
than  ever  in  training,  in  efficiency,  and  in  equip- 
ment, and  you  may  depend  upon  it  that  if  we  give 
them  the  necessary  support  they  will  cleave  a  road 
to  victory  through  all  the  dangers  and  perils  of 
the  next  few  months. 

A  Bombardment  of  Cheques. 

But  we  must  support  them.  They  are  worth  it. 
Have  you  ever  talked  to  a  soldier  who  has  come 
back  from  the  front?  There  is  not  one  of  them 
w^ho  will  not  tell  you  how  he  is  encouraged  and 
sustained  by  hearing  the  roar  of  the  guns  behind 
him.  This  is  what  I  want  to  see :  I  want  to  see 
cheques  hurtling  through  the  air,  fired  from  the 
City  of  London,  from  every  city,  town,  village, 
and  hamlet  throughout  the  land,  fired  straight  into 
the  entrenchments  of  the  enemy.  Every  well-di- 
rected cheque,  well  loaded,  properly  primed,  is  a 
more  formidable  weapon  of  destruction  than  a  12- 
inch  shell.  It  clears  the  path  of  the  barbed  wire 
entanglements  for  our  gallant  fellows  to  march 
through.  A  big  loan  helps  to  ensure  victory.  A 
big  loan  will  also  shorten  the  war.  It  will  help 
to  save  life;  it  will  help  to  save  the  British  Em- 


A  SAFE  INVESTMENT  93 

pire;  it  will  help  to  save  Europe;  it  will  help  to 
save  civilisation.  That  is  why  we  want  the  coun- 
try to  rise  to  this  occasion  and  shbw  that  the  old 
spirit  of  Britain,  represented  by  this  great  British 
meeting,  is  still  as  alive  and  as  alert  and  as  potent 
as  ever. 

''Extravagance  Costs  Blood.*' 

I  want  to  appeal  to  the  men  at  home,  and  to  the 
women  also,  for  they  have  done  their  part  nobly. 
A  man  who  has  been  Munitions  Minister  for 
twelve  months  must  feel  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the 
women  for  what  they  have  done.  They  have 
helped  to  win,  and  without  them  we  should  not  do 
it.  I  want  to  make  a  special  appeal,  or,  rather,  to 
enforce  the  special  appeal  of  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer.  Let  no  money  be  squandered  in  lux- 
ury and  indulgence  which  can  be  put  into  the  fight. 
Every  ounce  counts  in  this  fight.  Do  not  waste  it. 
Do  not  throw  it  away.  Put  it  there  to  help  the 
valour  of  our  brave  young  boys.  Back  them  up. 
Let  us  contribute  to  assist  them.  Have  greater 
pride  in  them  than  in  costly  garments.  They  in 
their  turn  will  feel  proud  of  their  mothers  to-day, 
and  their  pride  in  them  will  grow  in  years  to  come 
when  the  best  garments  will  have  rotted.  It  will 
glisten  and  glitter.  It  will  improve  with  the  years. 
They  can  put  it  on  with  old  age  and  say,  ''This 
is  something  I  contributed  in  the  Great  War." 

Men  and  women  of  England,  Scotland,  "Wales, 
and  Ireland,  the  first  charge — ^the  first  charge — 
upon  all  your  surplus  money  over  your  needs  for 


94  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

yourselves  and  your  children  should  be  to  help 
those  gallant  young  men  of  ours  who  have  ten- 
dered their  lives  for  the  cause  of  humanity.  The 
more  we  get  the  surer  the  victory.  The  more  we 
get  the  shorter  the  war.  The  more  we  get  the 
less  it  will  cost  in  treasure,  and  the  greatest  treas- 
ure of  all,  brave  blood.  The  more  we  give  the 
more  will  the  nation  gain.  You  will  enrich  it  by 
your  contributions — by  your  sacrifices.  Extrava- 
gance— I  want  to  bring  this  home  to  every  man 
and  woman  throughout  these  islands — extrava- 
gance during  the  war  costs  blood — costs  blood! 
And  what  blood!  Valiant  blood — the  blood  of 
heroes.  It  would  be  worth  millions  to  save  one  of 
them.  A  big  loan  will  save  myriads  of  them. 
Help  them  not  merely  to  win;  help  them  to  come 
home  to  shout  for  the  victory  which  they  have 
won! 

*' Equipment  for  the  Allies." 

It  means  better  equipment  for  our  troops.  It 
means  better  equipment  for  the  Allies  as  well,  and 
this — and  I  say  it  now  for  the  fiftieth  if  not  the 
hundredth  time — is  a  war  of  equipment.  Why 
are  the  Germans  pressing  back  our  gallant  Allies 
in  Roumanial  It  is  not  that  they  are  better  fight- 
ers. They  are  certainly  not.  The  Roumanian 
peasant  has  proved  himself  to  be  one  of  the  dough- 
tiest fighters  in  the  field  when  he  has  a  chance, 
poor  fellow,  and  he  never  had  much.  As  for  the 
Russian,  the  way  in  which  with  bare  breast  he 
has  fought  for  two  years  and  a  half,  with  inferior 


A  SAFE  INVESTMENT  95 

guns,  insufficient  rifles,  inadequate  supplies  of  am- 
munition, is  one  of  the  world's  tales  of  heroism. 
Let  us  help  to  equip  them,  and  there  will  be  an- 
other story  to  tell  soon. 

"A  Safe  Investment.'* 

That  is  why  I  am  glad  to  follow  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  in  the  appeal  which  he  has  made 
to  the  patriotism  of  our  race — ^but  with  true  Scot- 
tish instinct  he  put  the  appeal  to  prudence  first! 
He  laid  it  down  as  a  good  foundation  for  patriot- 
ism and  reserved  that  for  his  peroration.  I  shall 
reverse  the  order,  belonging  to  a  less  canny  race. 
I  want  to  say  it  is  a  good  investment.  After  all, 
the  old  country  is  the  best  investment  in  the  world. 
It  was  a  sound  concern  before  the  war ;  it  will  be 
sounder  and  safer  than  ever  after  the  war,  and 
especially  safer.  I  do  not  know  the  nation  that 
will  care  to  touch  it  after  the  war.  They  had 
forgotten  what  we  were  like,  but  it  will  take  them 
a  long  time  to  forget  this  lesson. 

Have  you  been  watching  what  has  been  going 
on?  Before  the  war  we  had  a  good  many  short- 
comings in  our  business,  our  commerce,  and  our 
industry.  The  war  is  setting  them  all  right  in  the 
most  marvellous  way.  You  ask  great  business 
men  what  is  going  on  in  the  factories  throughout 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Old  machinery 
scrapped,  the  newest  and  the  best  set  up;  slip- 
shod, wasteful  methods  also  scrapped,  hampering 
customs  discontinued;  millions  brought  into  the 


96  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

labour  market  to  help  to  produce  who  before  were 
merely  consumers.  I  do  not  know  what  the  Na- 
tional Debt  will  be  at  the  end  of  this  war,  but  I 
will  make  this  prediction.  Whatever  it  is,  what 
is  added  in  real  assets  to  the  real  riches  of  the 
nation  will  be  infinitely  greater  than  any  debt  that 
we  shall  ever  acquire.  The  resources  of  the  na- 
tion in  every  direction  will  have  been  developed, 
directed,  perfected,  the  nation  itself  disciplined, 
braced  up,  quickened.  We  have  become  a  more 
alert  people.  We  have  thrown  off  useless  tissues. 
We  are  a  nation  that  has  been  taking  exercise.  We 
are  a  different  people. 

''The  Path  of  Gold.'' 

I  will  tell  you  another  difference.  The  Prussian 
menace  was  a  running  mortgage  which  detracted 
from  the  value  of  our  national  security.  No- 
body knew  what  it  meant.  We  know  pretty  well 
now.  You  could  not  tell  whether  it  meant  a  mort- 
gage of  hundreds  of  millions,  or  thousands  of  mil- 
lions, and  I  know  you  could  not  tell  that  it  would 
not  mean  ruin.  That  mortgage  will  be  cleared  off 
for  ever,  and  there  will  be  a  better  security,  a  bet- 
ter, sounder,  safer  security,  at  a  better  rate  of  in- 
terest. The  world  will  then  be  able,  when  the  war 
is  over,  to  attend  to  its  business.  There  will  be 
no  war  or  rumours  of  war  to  disturb  and  to  dis- 
tract it.  We  can  build  up;  we  can  reconstruct; 
we  can  till  and  cultivate  and  enrich ;  and  the  bur- 
den and  terror  and  waste  of  war  will  have  gone. 


A  SAFE  INVESTMENT  97 

The  best  security  for  peace  will  be  that  nations 
will  band  themselves  together  to  punish  the  first 
peacebreaker.  In  the  armouries  of  Europe  every 
weapon  will  be  a  sword  of  justice.  In  the  govern- 
ment of  men  every  army  will  be  the  constabulary 
of  peace. 

There  were  men  who  hoped  to  see  this  achieved 
in  the  ways  of  peace.  We  were  disappointed.  It 
was  ordained  that  we  should  not  reach  that  golden 
era  except  along  a  path  which  itself  was  paved 
with  gold,  yea,  and  cemented  with  valiant  blood. 
There  are  myriads  who  have  given  the  latter,  and 
there  are  myriads  more  ready  for  the  sacrifice  if 
their  country  needs  it.  It  is  for  us  to  contribute 
the  former.  Let  no  man  and  no  woman,  in  this 
crisis  of  their  nation's  fate,  through  indolence, 
greed,  avarice,  or  selfishness,  fail.  And  if  they  do 
their  part,  then,  when  the  time  comes  for  the  tri- 
umphal march  through  the  darkness  and  the  ter- 
ror of  night  into  the  bright  dawn  of  the  morning 
of  the  new  age,  they  will  each  feel  that  they  have 
their  share  ia  it. 


SACEIFICE  AT  HOME. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  I^PEECH  ON"  THE  COUNTRY 's  FOOD  SUPPLIES, 
DELIVERED   IN    THE    HOUSE   OF    COMMONS,    FEBRUARY    23RD, 

1917. 

If  all  this  programme  is  carried  out ;  if  all  those 
who  can  help  us  with  production  do  help;  if  all 
those  who  are  called  upon  to  suffer  restrictions 
and  limitations  will  suffer  without  complaint,  then 
honestly  I  say  we  can  face  the  worst  that  the 
enemy  can  do — the  worst!  And  that  is  what  we 
ought  to  be  prepared  for.  If  we  are  not, — if  it 
were  conceivable  that  the  nation  was  not  prepared 
to  do  and  endure  all  these  things, — then  I  say 
with  all  solemnity  I  do  not  know  the  body  of  hon- 
ourable men  who  would  undertake  for  one  hour  to 
be  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  this  terrible  war. 
It  is  essential.  There  are  millions  of  gallant 
young  men  in  France,  in  Salonika,  in  Egypt,  in 
Mesopotamia,  facing  torture,  terror,  death.  They 
are  the  flower  of  our  race.  Unless  the  nation  at 
home  is  prepared  to  take  its  share  of  the  sacrifice, 
theirs  would  be  in  vain,  and  I  say  it  would  be  a 
crime — a  black  crime — for  any  Government  to  ask 
them  to  risk  their  brave  lives  in  the  coming  con- 
flict if  they  knew  that  the  nation  behind  them  were 
faint-hearted  or  selfish.  Their  sacrifice  would  be 
thrown  away.    We  have  no  right  to  ask  it.    For 

98 


SACRIFICE  AT  HOME  99 

that  reason  I  have  come  down,  after  long  delibera- 
tion and  thought,  careful  and  searching,  on  be- 
half of  the  Government  of  this  country  to  submit 
to  the  House  of  Commons,  and  through  the  House 
of  Commons  to  the  nation,  proposals  which  I  hope 
the  Commons  will  approve,  and  which  I  hope  the 
nation  will  carry  out  with  an  unflinching  and  an 
ungrudging  heart. 


"SOWING  THE  WINTER  WHEAT." 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  CARNARVON,   TO  A  MEETING  OF  CON- 
STITUENTS,   AFTER    BECOMING    PRIME    MINISTER,    FEBRUARY 
3rd,  1917. 

This  is  a  strictly  non-party  gathering,  and  I 
wish  to  emphasise  that  aspect  of  it,  because,  what- 
ever OTir  views  may  be  on  the  political  questions 
which  divide  us  in  times  of  peace,  there  can  be  but 
one  opinion  about  the  desirability  of  our  sinking 
all  our  differences  in  order  to  unite  for  the  para- 
mount national  duty  of  carrying  through  to  vic- 
tory the  great  cause  which  this  country  has  cham- 
pioned with  its  blood. 

The  National  Government. 

Two  great  men  have  spoken  this  week  from  non- 
party platforms — one  of  them  the  eminent  states- 
man who  has  taken  charge  in  this  trying  hour  of 
the  important  office  of  Secretary  of  State  for  For- 
eign Affairs,  and  whose  brilliant  memorandum 
attached  to  the  Allied  reply  to  America  is  one  of 
the  most  striking  documents  of  the  war;  the  other 
the  distinguished  leader  of  the  Liberal  Party — 
both  of  them  appealing  to  the  nation  to  sink  dif- 
ferences and  disputes,  party  and  personal,  and  to 
unite  for  the  common  great  end  that  the  nation  is 

100 


"SOWING  THE  WINTER  WHEAT"      101 

putting  its  strength  into  achieving.  I  have  the 
honour  of  being  called  to  the  leadership  of  the 
national  Government — a  non-party  Government, 
none  the  less  a  Government  in  which  three  parties 
are  represented,  and  in  which  I  am  perfectly  cer- 
tain it  is  a  matter  of  regret  for  every  member  of 
the  three  parties  that  the  fourth  has  not  been  able 
to  join.  And  although  we  can  recognise  no  party 
during  the  war,  the  people  of  this  comitry  have  the 
party  habit  so  thoroughly  ingrained  in  their  na- 
ture that  even  in  order  to  attain  national  unity  it 
was  desirable  that  the  three  parties  should  be  rep- 
resented in  any  national  Government,  and  they 
are  fully  and  substantially  represented. 

Labour's  Part. 

I  am  glad  that,  although  some  of  my  late  col- 
leagues, for  reasons  which  I  have  no  right  to  can- 
vass, have  not  joined  the  present  Government, 
there  are  just  as  many  Liberals  in  the  present  Ad- 
ministration as  in  the  old.  There  are  Unionists 
and  there  are  Labour  men,  and  I  specially  con- 
gratulate the  nation  on  the  fact  that  Labour  has 
finally  and  firmly  decided  to  abandon  its  attitude 
of  criticism  and  censure  of  Governments,  as  it  had 
already  abandoned  long  ago  its  attitude  of  blind 
adhesion  to  any  party,  and  that  it  has  decided  to 
take  its  share  in  the  responsibility  of  governing 
the  Empire.  A  distinguished  contribution  it  has 
already  made.  The  statesmanship  displayed  by 
Mr.  Henderson  during  the  period  in  which  he  has 


102  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

been  a  member  of  an  Imperial  Government  has 
shown  the  value  of  the  adhesion  of  Labour  in  the 
task  of  administering  the  affairs  of  this  Empire, 
and  I  am  glad  that  in  the  present  Government,  for 
the  first  time.  Labour  has  a  seat  in  the  inner  coun- 
cil that  settles  and  decides  the  affairs  of  the  coun- 
try in  the  greatest  emergency  which  has  ever 
befallen  it.  It  has  twice  as  many  representatives 
as  it  ever  had  in  any  Government  before.  I  con- 
gratulate the  country  on  the  fact  that  all  parties 
in  the  State — with  the  exception  of  the  Irish 
Party,  whose  absence  from  our  counsels  we  all 
regret — have  united  for  the  purpose  of  directing 
the  concerns  of  the  Empire  in  its  hour  of  trial. 

Treading  Gladstone's  Path. 

The  Liberal  Party  has  special  interest  in  the 
causes  for  which  we  are  struggling  in  this  great 
war.  The  principle  that  the  rights  of  nations, 
however  small,  are  as  sacred  as  the  rights  of  the 
biggest  empire — that  is  the  principle  which  I  was 
taught  as  a  lad  among  those  mountains  which  sur- 
round us.  The  principle  that  international  right 
is  the  basis  of  international  peace — that  is  an- 
other. The  doctrine  that  the  Turk  is  incapable 
of  governing  any  other  race  justly,  and  even  his 
own  race  well — that  is  another  which  I  was  taught. 
I  remember  very  well  as  a  boy  having  to  walk 
some  miles  to  the  nearest  railway  station  in  order 
to  buy  Mr.  Gladstone's  famous  speech  on  the  ex- 
pelling of  the  Turk,  bag  and  baggage,  from  Eu- 


"SOWING  THE  WINTER  WHEAT"      103 

rope  for  his  misrule  and  his  massacres ;  and  I  also 
remember  the  sensation  that  was  created  by  the 
famous  speech  of  Mr.  Gladstone  6n  the  Belgian 
question,  when  he  said:  *'If  the  Belgian  people 
desire  on  their  own  account  to  join  France  or  any 
other  country'',  I,  for  one,  will  be  no  party  to  tak- 
ing up  arms  to  prevent  it;  but  that  the  Belgians, 
whether  they  would  or  not,  should  go  plumb  down 
the  maw  of  another  country,  is  another  matter. 
The  accomplishment  of  such  a  crime  as  this  im- 
plies is  coming  near  to  the  extinction  of  public 
right  in  Europe,  and  I  do  not  think  we  could  look 
on  while  the  sacrifice  of  freedom  and  independ- 
ence was  in  course  of  consummation."  The  path 
which  that  great  statesman  hewed  out  in  his  great- 
est days  is  the  one  I  am  humbly  treading  in  this 
great  war.  We  are  fighting  for  all  that  is  best  and 
highest  in  the  principles  of  his  great  rival — the 
solidarity  of  the  Empire,  recognition  of  its  in- 
fluence and  its  power  as  essential  instruments  in 
the  progress  of  the  human  race.  We  are  fighting 
for  all  that  is  greatest  and  best  in  the  career  of 
these  two  great  men. 

"A  Fair  Chance." 

I  recognise  that  the  new  Government  is  in  some 
respects  an  experiment.  In  its  size  it  is  rather 
small,  but  you  must  not  imagine  that  very  small 
men  or  small  Cabinets  are  the  least  efficient.  In 
its  constitution,  in  its  composition,  for  the  first 
time,  at  any  rate  on  a  great  scale,  success  in  busi- 


104.  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

ness  has  been  placed  on  the  same  footing  as  suc- 
cess in  politics  as  a  claim  to  high  office.  I  am 
going  to  ask  for  these  men  that  they  should  have 
fair  play.  They  have  been  treated  in  some  quar- 
ters already  as  if  they  were  mere  fussers  and 
flounderers.  They  are  men  of  great  experience, 
men  who  have  shown  they  possess  the  wisdom  and 
judgment  and  the  abiHty  to  make  a  suc<jess  in  their 
own  spheres.  Give  them  a  fair  chance.  They 
have  to  straighten  out  tangles  and  make  up  many 
accumulated  deficiencies.  They  have  arrears  to 
clear  up.  A  vast  amount  of  work  has  to  be  done, 
and  is  being  done.  That  work  will  be  continued. 
There  was  some  bad  work  that  will  be  scrapped. 
Where  there  was  slack  work,  that  will  be  ener- 
gised, and  where  there  was  no  work  it  will  be  initi- 
ated. They  are  not  asking  for  a  trial  of  two  and 
a  half  years ;  they  have  not  yet  had  two  months ; 
they  have  hardly  had  a  month;  they  must  have  a 
fair  chance  to  look  round,  to  plan,  to  consider, 
and  to  act. 

Example  of  Ministry  of  MmMions. 

I  have  had  a  good  deal  of  experience  of  what 
men  of  this  kind  can  do,  the  great  business  men 
of  this  country,  when  you  call  upon  them.  The 
Mayor  was  good  enough  fo  refer  to  my  work  as 
Minister  of  Munitions.  The  only  credit  I  take  is 
this — that  I  gathered  together  as  fine  a  body  of 
men  of  able  experience  as  ever  came  together  in 
any  Government  Department,  as  ever  existed  in 
this  or  any  other  land.    I  do  not  pretend  I  did 


"SOWING  THE  WINTER  WHEAT"      106 

the  work.  They  did  it.  I  encouraged  them.  I 
stood  by  them,  and  now  and  again  J.  scolded  them ; 
but  we  all  worked  hard,  I  will  tell  you  what  I 
want  to  say  about  it,  and  what  I  am  saying  now 
is  not  without  its  relevance,  and  you  can  each 
apply  it  to  everything  read  or  heard.  They  had 
not  been  there  a  few  weeks  dealing  with  an  un- 
doubted shortage,  an  undoubted  deficiency,  to- 
gether with  lost  opportunities,  before  we  heard 
censure  and  criticising.  Was  there  ever  such  a 
muddle?  It  was  chaos,  confusion,  failure.  Club 
comers,  corridors,  lobbies,  dining-rooms,  above  all 
drawing-rooms,  sizzled  with  whispers  of  the  mess 
these  gi'eat  business  men  had  made  of  things. 
They  took  no  notice  of  it,  and,  for  a  wond'^r,  nor 
did  I.  They  knew  they  were  going  to  confound 
all  these  things,  not  by  speech,  but  by  accomplish- 
ment. They  knew  they  were  not  going  to  fail  the 
British  Army  at  the  appointed  hour.  They  knew 
the  condition  of  things — ^when  you  had  on  the  lines 
of  communication  (there  is  no  harm  in  telling  it 
now)  and  behind  the  front  just  equal  to  one-third 
of  your  present  daily  output;  when  the  British 
Army  had  to  stand  in  the  trenches  battered,  ham- 
mered, shelled,  without  an  answer,  with  no  sup- 
port. It  is  one  of  the  most  heroic  tales  in  the  his- 
tory of  that  grand  infantry.  For  a  year  they 
stood  it  without  flinching.  They  never  ran  away. 
And  these  men  worked  and  worked  and  worked 
because  they  thought  the  men  were  worth  it,  and 
the  men  stood  there  because  they  knew  there  were 
men  behind  prepared  to  help  them. 


106  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

What  happened  ?  The  great  battle  of  the  Somme 
came.  These  men  had  mobilised  the  whole  of  the 
engineering  resources  of  the  country.  Old  work- 
shops grew  to  life,  new  workshops  were  set  up, — 
you  could  see  them  north  and  south,  east  and  west, 
wherever  you  travelled — old  machinery  made  the 
best  of,  new  machinery  manufactured  here  and 
also  ordered  in  America — machinery  that  will 
revolutionise  industry  after  the  war.  New  indus- 
tries were  set  up  where  before  the  war  we  had 
been  dependent  entirely  on  Germany ;  and  we  are 
not  going  to  drop  them  after  the  war.  And  then, 
when  the  time  came,  there  was  an  overflowing 
supply  of  shot  and  shell;  batteries  of  the  finest 
artillery  on  the  battlefield  of  Europe  to-day;  guns, 
howitzers,  machine-guns,  shells  of  every  calibre, 
great  and  small,  a  surplus  even  to  assist  our 
Allies,  and  after  four  months  of  incessant  bom- 
bardment, night  and  day,  there  were  more  guns 
and  there  was  more  ammunition  than  on  the  first 
day  the  battle  began.  And  yet  that  was  accom- 
plished by  a  Department  which  was  decried  and 
condemned  as  a  failure  within  a  few  weeks  after 
it  had  been  set  up,  by  the  same  men  who  are  be- 
ginning clandestinely  to  do  the  same  thing  with 
the  new  Government. 

"The  Work  of  the  Nation." 

I  am  only  giving  you  that  as  a  warning  not  to 
rush  into  premature  criticism.  Wlien  men  are 
ploughing  and  sowing  it  is  no  use  saying  *' Where 


"SOWING  THE  WINTER  WHEAT"      107 

is  the  harvest?"  It  is  enong-h  for  me  to  know 
that  they  are  good  ploughmen.  They  know  how 
to  handle  the  plough,  and  although  they  will  now 
and  again  come  up  against  a  hidden  boulder  they 
will  do  their  work,  and  I  have  very  little  doubt  in 
a  short  time  I  shall  be  able  to  show  to  you  what 
great  things  they  have  accomplished.  They  have 
already  saved  hundreds  of  thousands  of  tons  of 
our  shipping,  invaluable  in  the  face  of  the  diffi- 
culties we  have  to  encounter.  They  have  arranged 
for  the  construction  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
new  tonnage;  they  have  saved  locomotives, 
wagons,  and  rails ;  they  have  set  up  a  great  new 
organisation  for  the  production  of  food  with 
branches  throughout  the  land;  they  are  working, 
and  I  think  effectively,  at  the  urgent  problem  of 
dealing  with  the  piratical  brutality  of  Germany  on 
the  seas.  When  necessary,  in  every  department 
of  Government,  there  is  an  intensification,  a  quick- 
ening, a  new  energy,  a  new  system  and  method. 
But  they  must  be  helped ;  they  are  there  not  to  do 
the  work  of  any  party,  nor  of  any  Government, 
and  certainly  not  their  cwn.  They  are  there  to  do 
the  work  of  the  nation,  which  is  your  work  and 
their  own,  and  I  am  here  to  ask  you  to  help  them. 
Their  task  is  the  most  complicated,  difficult,  and 
dangerous  ever  entnisted  to  any  body  of  men. 

''The  Balkan  Muddh." 

I  have  never  been  a  believer  in  concealing  the 
realities  of  the  situation  from  my  fellow-country- 


168  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

men.  You  cannot  get  the  best  out  of  them  until 
they  face  the  facts.  I  have  never  had  any  doubt 
as  to  ultimate  victory ;  but  neither  have  I  had  any 
doubt  that  before  you  reach  it  there  are  many 
broad  and  turbulent  rivers  to  cross,  and  the  na- 
tion— and  by  the  nation  I  do  not  mean  the  Gov- 
ernment, I  mean  the  men  and  women  that  make 
up  the  nation, — must  help  us  to  bridge  those 
rivers.  I  am  not  going  to  give  a  summary  of  the 
military  situation.  There  is  much  in  it  which,  of 
course,  must  necessarily  cause  anxiety.  There  is 
the  condition  of  the  Balkans,  where,  through  cir- 
cumstances I  do  not  wish  to  discuss,  one  advan- 
tage after  another  has  been  thrown  away.  Any 
man  who  looks  at  the  map  of  Europe  and  knows 
the  circumstances  must  realise  how  important  the 
Balkans  must  necessarily  be  in  a  survey  of  the 
whole  field.  It  is  no  one's  fault  in  particular. 
You  cannot  say  that  is  the  fault  of  this  country 
or  of  that  country,  of  this  Government  or  of  that 
Government.  All  the  four  countries  have  un- 
doubtedly been  to  blame  for  the  present  condition 
of  things  in  the  Balkans ;  the  improvident  lack  of 
vision,  the  lack  of  imagination,  the  lack  of  promp- 
titude, the  lack  of  decision,  the  delay,  the  hesita- 
tion— they  have  all  combined  to  produce  this  Bal- 
kan muddle,  which  is  the  only  part  of  the  whole 
battlefield  which  for  the  moment  need  cause  any 
anxiety  to  the  Allies.  On  the  Western  front — 
both  Western  fronts,  France  and  Italy, — we  have 
driven  the  enemy  back  in  battle  after  battle. 


"SOWING  THE  WINTER  WHEAT"      109 

*'The  Black  Flag." 

When  you  come  to  the  sea  there  is  much  for 
us  to  glory  in  as  a  nation.  After  two  years  and  a 
half  our  streng-th  is  unbroken,  and  not  merely 
this  country  but  all  the  countries  which  are  in 
alliance  with  it  owe  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  to 
the  skill  and  gallantry  of  our  great  Navy  which 
holds  the  seas.  But  here  again  I  must  call  atten- 
tion to  the  great  and  to  the  growing  menace  of 
Germany's  piratical  devices.  I  want  the  nation 
to  realise  what  this  most  recent  move  of  Germany 
really  portends.  It  is  nothing  new  in  essence ;  it  is 
a  development,  it  is  an  advance  along  the  road  to 
complete  barbarism ;  it  is  casting  off  the  last  gar- 
ment of  civilisation;  it  is  the  Goth  in  his  naked 
savagery.  What  more  can  he  do?  He  must 
stand  revealed  now  even  to  the  most  indulgent 
neutral.  He  had  already  sunk  570  neutral  ships, 
I  think  430  by  submarines,  that  is  deliberately, 
some  of  the  crews  being  lost.  Now  he  means  to 
sink  them  all  without  warning.  He  will  respect 
henceforth  no  flag  except  the  black  flag.  I  beg  his 
pardon;  he  has  had  the  graciousness  to  intimate 
as  a  favour  to  the  great  Republic  of  the  West 
that  he  will  allow  one  American  passenger  ship  a 
week  to  ply  to  one  British  port  provided  it  bears 
the  mark  of  a  Dutch  paddle  steamer.  Was  there 
ever  such  insolence?    It  amounts  to  insanity. 

We  can  overcome  it,  but  only  if  the  nation  is 
prepared  to  back  the  Goveniment  with  the  whole 
of  its  resources.    I  don't  want  anyone  to  go  away 


110  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

from  this  meeting,  or  to  read  what  is  said  at  this 
meeting,  and  draw  any  inference  from,  that  ex- 
cept one.  The  peril  is  great,  but  it  can  be  sur- 
mounted by  the  grit,  the  energy,  the  courage,  the 
determination  of  a  great  people  like  the  people  of 
these  lands.  But  the  nation  must  support  the  Gov- 
ernment, in  money,  in  labour,  in  land,  in  the  sacri- 
fice of  conveniences,  nay,  of  comforts;  then  we 
shall  pull  through  in  our  deadly  struggle  with 
these  desperadoes. 

"The  Prussian  Baal." 

Let  me  make  clear  to  you  what  the  enemy  is 
doing.  I  want  the  nation  thoroughly  to  under- 
stand what  it  all  means.  He  is  doing  it  because 
he  is  getting  desperate.  The  Prussian  thoroughly 
understands  that  the  resources  at  his  disposal  can- 
not command  complete  victory  on  land.  I  want 
you  fully  to  appreciate  what  that  means  for  him 
and  for  us.  I  am  very  glad  to  read  what  Mr. 
Asquith  said  yesterday  or  the  day  before  about 
' '  peace  without  victory. ' '  He  was  absolutely  right. 
What  would  it  mean?  It  would  mean  not  a  peace, 
but  a  rest — a  rest  for  him  and  for  the  Central 
Powers,  a  time  to  recuperate  from  their  exhausted 
condition.  I  can  tell  exactly  what  would  happen 
without  pretending  to  any  gifts  of  prophecy.  The 
military  leaders  of  Germany  would  say,  '*We 
made  a  few  mistakes  at  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
otherwise  we  should  have  rushed  these  nations. 
Next  time  we  will  repair  those  errors."     They 


"SOWING  THE  WINTER  WHEAT"      111 

would  also  say,  ''We  were  done  by  the  blockade; 
we  were  short  of  food  and  material.'  Next  time  we 
will  accumulate  a  sufficient  quantity  of  food  and 
raw  material  so  that  the  German  Empire  shall 
not  have  its  life  crushed  out  by  a  blockade."  But 
if  we  destroy  the  prestige  of  the  Prussian  military 
idol,  that  cannot  be  set  up  again.  They  could  pre- 
pare swarms  of  submarines  and  aircraft  in  order 
to  get  over  the  blockade,  but  if  they  lose  confi- 
dence in  their  army,  if  that  is  broken,  it  camiot  be 
restored.  The  Germans  put  their  trust  in  it  in  a 
way  you  can  hardly  conceive,  as  we  all  put  our 
trust  in  our  great  Navy.  But  mth  them  it  is 
more  than  that ;  it  is  something  that  is  ever  press- 
ing, it  enters  into  the  whole  life  of  the  nation,  its 
arrogance  struts  through  the  streets.  The  Ger- 
man people  fear  it,  and  to-day  are  hating  it.  But 
they  rely  upon  it.  It  terrorises  them,  but  they 
put  up  with  it  so  long  as  it  intimidates  their  neigh- 
bours. It  bullies  them,  but  they  bear  with  it  so 
long  as  it  enables  them  to  bully  Europe.  But 
though  they  bow  before  it  they  worship  it  as  a 
god. 

We  have  to  demonstrate  that  the  Prussian  Baal 
is  a  false  god,  that  its  pretensions  are  a  sham, 
that  its  priests  are  a  cruel  fraud.  We  must  show 
them  that  he  has  brought  famine  to  their  land; 
that  he  could  not  protect  himself,  let  alone  them. 
Once  you  do  that  they  will  tear  do^vn  his  altars 
and  strike  his  images  into  the  dust.  It  is  essen- 
tial that  this  nation,  with  its  great  Allies,  should 
destroy  the   delusion   of   the   Prussian   military 


112  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

power.  You  will  then  have  in  Europe  one  great 
emancipated  land  from  the  Ural  to  the  Atlantic 
shores. 

*^  Regardless." 

But  we  must  have  time.  What  is  the  German 
calculation?  I  will  tell  you  what  it  is.  They  know 
perfectly  well  that,  given  time,  the  great  armies 
of  the  Allies  will  break  up  their  military  machine 
with  its  terrors,  but  they  know  that  if  they  de- 
stroy our  transports  at  sea  our  armies  will  lan- 
guish for  lack  of  support  and  sustenance,  and  our 
people  will  die  of  hunger;  we  cannot  keep  up  our 
armies  in  the  East  and  the  West,  and  the  barba- 
rian hordes  of  Turkey  will  have  our  Eastern  Em- 
pire at  their  mercy.  You  must  not  merely  see  that 
this  does  not  happen.  You  must  demonstrate  to 
them  that  it  cannot  happen.  You  must  make  it 
clear  to  them  that  they  cannot  do  it.  You  will 
get  peace  in  1917  if  the  enemy  knows  that  by  hold- 
ing out  until  1918  he  will  be  worse  and  not  better 
off.  That  is  what  he  is  working  for,  and  I  want 
you  to  understand  it — the  destruction  of  all  access 
to  our  shores.  For  that  purpose  he  is  defying 
every  law,  human  and  Divine.  You  saw  what  the 
German  Chancellor  said  in  his  speech  which  was 
reported  either  to-day  or  yesterday.  He  called  it 
the  "U-boat  campaign  regardless."  So  it  is;  re- 
gardless of  the  good  will  of  the  world,  regard- 
less of  honour,  regardless  of  fair  play,  regardless 
of  humanity.  They  care  for  nothing,  and  he  said 
so,  as  long  as  they  can  win;  and  we  must  see 


"SOWING  THE  WINTER  WHEAT"      113 

by  our  own  efforts  that  that  policy,  which  de- 
grades Europe,  the  success  of  which  would  put 
civilisation  back  untold  centuries,  cannot  and  will 
not  triumplL 


The  Imperial  Conference. 

We  want  to  utilise  far  more  than  we  have  done 
in  the  past  the  great  resources  of  the  Empire. 
The  contribution  of  the  Dominions  and  of  India 
has  been  splendid.  The  assistance  they  have  given 
us  in  the  most  trying  hours  of  this  campaign  has 
been  incalculable  in  its  value.  But,  after  all,  it  is 
an  Empire  of  300  millions  of  population,  and  it 
can  do  far  more,  and  it  will  do  it.  It  is  purely  a 
question  of  indicating  what  can  be  done,  and  with 
that  object  in  view  a  meeting  of  the  Imperial 
Conference  will  be  held  in  the  course  of  the  next 
few  weeks  in  London,  at  which  the  Dominions  and 
India  will  be  represented.  It  will  be  the  first  Im- 
perial Cabinet  ever  held.  After  all,  it  is  right 
when  they  are  making  sacrifices  that  they  should 
be  consulted  as  to  the  use  which  is  to  be  made  of 
their  endeavours  as  well  as  of  our  own.  The  ques- 
tion of  the  conquered  German  territories  will  be 
considered,  among  others.  It  is  unthinkable  that 
their  disposition  after  the  war  should  be  deter- 
mined without  consulting  the  Dominions,  since 
they  have  shed  their  blood  in  acquiring  them.  It 
is  also  unthinkable  that  the  question  should  be 
settled  without  the  Dominions  taking  their  share 


114  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

of  the  responsibility  of  considering  this  issue,  not 
as  a  separate  one,  but  as  part  of  the  settlement — 
the  whole  settlement — of  the  great  world-prob- 
lems which  must  inevitably  follow  the  end  of  this 
world-war.  Their  presence  at  this  Conference, 
or  rather  Cabinet,  is  essential  in  order  that  they 
should  share  with  us  the  anxious  burden  of  con- 
sidering not  merely  a  part,  however  important, 
but  all  the  factors  in  a  cause  for  which  their  sons 
so  freely  sacrificed  their  lives. 

^'We  Must  Endure  More." 

But  I  want  to  get  nearer  home,  and  I  want  to 
tell  you  what  you  can  do.  We  can  do  nothing  un- 
less the  nation  is  prepared  to  back  us  up,  and  if 
you  will  allow  me  I  am  going  to  speak  quite 
frankly.  I  certainly  should  not  be  worthy  of  the 
position  which  I  hold  unless  I  talked  quite  openly, 
quite  fearlessly,  to  the  nation.  The  nation  has 
done  great  things ;  it  can  do  more.  No  great  ends 
have  ever  been  achieved  in  this  world  without 
great  sacrifices,  and  they  must  not  be  confined  to 
one  class  or  one  section  of  the  community.  We 
must  not  choose  able-bodied  men  between  eighteen 
and  forty-one  who  do  not  happen  to  be  indispen- 
sable to  a  business  and  say  the  sacrifice  is  theirs 
— we  must  not  choose  them  to  bear  the  burden  of 
sacrifice  and  the  rest  go  free.  We  must  all  share 
in  it.  There  is  no  belligerent  country  in  Europe 
on  either  side  where  the  general  public  have  suf- 
fered less  than  in  Great  Britain.    There  are  ex- 


"SOWING  THE  WINTER  WHEAT"      115 

ceptions,  but  tlioy  are  small.  There  are  certain 
professions  wliicli  have  suffered  severely  from  the 
war,  and  let  me  say  this  for  them:  they  are  just 
the  professions  from  which  you  never  hear  a 
growl;  they  are  the  most  patriotic.  But  with 
these  exceptions  the  general  community  has  not 
suffered  in  this  country  anything  which  is  com- 
parable to  what  it  has  suffered  in  other  belligerent 
lands. 

To  win  the  war  we  must  endure  more.  The 
sacrifice  has  been  delegated  too  much  to  the  men 
in  the  trenches ;  the  privations  have  been  endured 
by  the  men  in  the  trenches.  Nobly,  heroically, 
they  faced  them,  and  we  must  all  be  prepared 
to  give  up  something  for  the  victory  of  our  native 
land  and  the  cause  for  which  it  stands.  And 
may  I  say  to  those  whom  I  have  heard  complain- 
ing about  little  inconveniences  and  little  discom- 
forts that  the  first  thing  we  have  to  give  up  is  to 
give  up  grumbling.  The  vast  majority  are  only 
too  anxious  to  help,  and  the  grumblers,  fortu- 
nately, are  few.  What  people  want  to  know  is 
how  they  can  help,  and  it  is  the  business  of  the 
Government  to  indicate  how  they  can.  The  first 
thing  is:  Out  with  your  ready  cash,  or  even 
with  unready  cash.  It  is  indispensable  in  order 
to  carry  on  the  war.  I  have  not  merely  been  in  two 
spending  Departments,  but  I  have  been  in  the  De- 
partment which  provides  the  money,  so  I  know  the 
problem  from  both  sides.  You  must  have  silver 
bullets  or  golden  bullets.  Those  who  cannot  af- 
ford the  gold,  let  them  produce  the  silver. 


lie  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

"Don't  Let  Them  Down!" 

There  is  great  fighting  in  front  of  us.  Our  gal- 
lant soldiers  will  do  their  duty.  There  are  men 
everj^  day  and  every  night  who  are  going  down 
to  the  sea  in  ships  to  defend  our  shores  and  the 
access  to  our  shores,  and  our  gallant  sailors  will 
not  finish,  whatever  danger  the  deep  may  conceal 
for  them.  But  I  do  beg  for  our  sailors  and  our 
soldiers,  don't  let  them  down  in  the  hour  of  bat- 
tle. Support  them  with  all  we  can  and  all  we  have. 
A  big  loan  will  shorten  the  war ;  a  big  number  of 
subscribers  will  shorten  it  further.  If  you  can- 
not give  much,  give  what  you  can.  It  will  swell 
the  number  of  subscribers,  it  will  encourage  the 
Army,  it  will  discourage  the  foe.  Let  the  Army 
at  the  front  know  that  at  home  there  is  an  army 
behind  the  Army;  and  every  man  who  has  any- 
thing to  give,  I  ask  him  to  enlist  in  that  army  in 
order  to  do  his  share  and  to  contribute  his  help 
to  the  winning  of  the  war. 


''Enlist  Time." 

There  must  be  no  hanging  back,  there  must  be 
no  loitering,  there  must  be  no  lingering.  Time 
is  a  hesitating  and  perplexed  neutral.  He  has 
not  yet  decided  on  which  side  he  is  going  to  swing 
his  terrible  scythe.  For  the  moment  that  scythe 
is  striking  both  sides  with  terrible  havoc.  The 
hour  will  come  when  it  will  be   swung  finally 


"SOWING  THE  WINTER  WHEAT"      117 

on  one  side  or  the  other.  Time  is  the  deadliest  of 
all  the  neutral  powers.  Let  us  see  that  we  enlist 
him  among  our  Allies.  The  only  way  to  win  time 
is  not  to  lose  time.  You  must  not  lose  time  in  the 
council  chamber;  you  must  not  lose  time  in  the 
departments  which  carry  out  the  decrees  of  the 
council ;  you  must  not  lose  time  in  the  field,  in  the 
factory,  or  in  the  workshop.  Whoever  tarries 
when  he  ought  to  be  active — whether  it  is  a  states- 
man, a  soldier,  an  official,  a  farmer,  a  worker,  a 
rich  man  with  his  money — is  simply  helping  the 
enemy  to  secure  the  aid  of  the  most  powerful  fac- 
tor in  this  war — time.  Act  and  act  in  time.  That 
is  our  appeal  to  you. 

"A  New  Country." 

In  conclusion  I  would  sum  up  the  appeal  which 
I  am  making  to  you  in  the  Caraarvon  Boroughs, 
men  and  women,  and  through  you  to  the  men  and 
women  of  this  land.  Do  these  things  for  the  sake 
of  your  country  during  the  war.  Do  them  for 
the  sake  of  your  country  after  the  war.  When  the 
smoke  of  this  great  conflict  has  been  dissolved  in 
the  atmosphere  we  breathe,  there  will  reappear 
a  new  Britain.  It  will  be  the  old  country  still, 
but  it  will  be  a  new  country.  Its  commerce  will 
be  new,  its  trade  will  be  new,  its  industries  will 
be  new.  There  will  be  new  conditions  of  life  and 
of  toil,  for  capital  and  for  labour  alike,  and  there 
will  be  new  relations  between  both  of  them  and 
for  ever.    But  there  will  be  new  ideas,  there  will 


118  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

be  a  new  outlook,  there  will  be  a  new  character  in 
the  land.  The  men  and  women  of  this  country  will 
be  burnt  into  fine  building  material  for  the  new 
Britain  in  the  tiery  kilns  of  the  war.  It  will  not 
merely  be  the  millions  of  men  who,  please  God! 
will  come  back  from  the  battlefield  to  enjoy  the 
victory  which  they  have  won  by  their  bravery. 
A  finer  fomidation  I  would  not  want  for  the  new 
country;  but  it  will  not  be  merely  that.  The 
Britain  that  is  to  be  will  depend  also  upon  what 
will  be  done  now  by  the  many  more  millions  who 
remain  at  home. 

There  are  rare  epochs  in  the  history  of  the 
world  when  in  a  few  raging  years  the  character, 
the  destiny,  of  the  whole  race  is  determined  for 
unknown  ages.  This  is  one.  The  winter  wheat 
is  being  sown.  It  is  better,  it  is  surer,  it  is  more 
bountiful  in  its  harvest  than  when  it  is  sown  in 
the  soft  springtime.  There  are  many  storms  to 
pass  through,  there  are  many  frosts  to  endure,  be- 
fore the  land  brings  forth  its  green  promise.  But 
let  us  not  be  weary  in  well-doing,  for  in  due  sea- 
son we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not. 


THE  ENTRY  OF  AMERICA  INTO  THE  WAR. 

SPEECH    DELIVERED    AT    THE    AMERICAN    LUNCHEON     CLUB 

(savoy  hotel),  APRIL  12th,  1917. 

I  AM  in  the  happy  position,  I  think,  of  being  the 
first  British  Minister  of  the  CroA\Ti  who,  speak- 
ing on  behalf  of  the  people  of  this  country,  can 
salute  the  American  nation  as  comrades  in  arms. 
I  am  glad.  I  am  proud.  I  am  glad  not  merely  be- 
cause of  the  stupendous  resources  which  this 
great  nation  can  bring  to  the  succour  of  the  Al- 
liance, but  I  rejoice  as  a  Democrat  that  the  ad- 
vent of  the  United  States  into  this  war  gives  the 
final  stamp  and  seal  to  the  character  of  the  con- 
flict as  a  struggle  against  military  autocracy 
throughout  the  world. 


'■b 


^'A  Fight  for  Human  Liberty.*' 

That  was  the  note  that  rang  through  the  great 
deliverance  of  President  Wilson.  It  was  echoed 
in  your  resounding  words  to-day,  Sir.  The 
United  States  of  America  have  a  noble  tradi- 
tion, never  broken,  of  having  never  engaged  in  a 
war  except  for  liberty,  and  this  is  the  greatest 
struggle  for  liberty  they  have  ever  embarked 
upon.    I  am  not  at  all  surprised,  when  one  recol- 

119 


120  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

lects  the  wars  of  the  past,  that  America  took  its 
time  to  make  up  its  mind  about  the  character  of 
this  struggle.  In  Europe  most  of  the  great  wars 
of  the  past  were  waged  for  dynastic  aggrandise- 
ments and  for  conquest.  No  wonder  that  when 
this  great  war  started  there  were  some  elements 
of  suspicion  still  lurking  in  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States  of  America.  There  were 
many  who  thought,  perhaps,  that  kings  were  at 
their  old  tricks,  and  although  they  saw  the  gal- 
lant Republic  of  France  fighting,  some  of  them 
perhaps,  regarded  France  as  the  poor  victim  of 
conspiracy  and  of  monarchical  swashbucklers. 
The  fact  that  the  United  States  of  America  has 
made  up  its  mind  finally  makes  it  abundantly 
clear  to  the  world  that  this  is  no  struggle  of  that 
character,  but  a  great  fight  for  human  liberty. 

The  Prussian  Military  Caste. 

They  naturally  did  not  know  at  first  what  we 
had  endured  in  Europe  for  years  from  this  mili- 
tary caste  in  Prussia.  It  never  reached  as  far 
as  the  United  States  of  America.  Prussia  is  not 
a  democracy,  but  the  Kaiser  promises  it  will  be 
a  democracy  after  the  war.  I  think  he  is  right. 
But  Prussia  not  merely  was  not  a  democracy; 
Prussia  was  not  a  State.  Prussia  was  an  army. 
It  had  great  industries,  highly  developed.  It  had 
a  great  educational  system.  It  had  its  universi- 
ties. It  developed  its  sciences.  But  all  these 
were  subordinate  to  the  one  great  predominant 


AMERICA  AND  THE  WAR  121 

purpose  of  an  all-conquering  army  which  was  to 
intimidate  the  world.  The  army  was  the  spear- 
point  of  Prussia;  the  rest  was  merely  the  shaft. 

That  is  what  we  had  to  deal  with  in  these  old 
countries.  It  got  on  the  neiwes  of  Europe.  We 
knew  what  it  all  meant.  The  Prussian  Army  in 
recent  times  had  waged  three  wars — all  for  con- 
quest. And  the  incessant  tramping  of  its  legions 
through  the  streets  of  Prussia  and  on  the  parade 
grounds  of  Prussia  had  got  into  the  Prussian 
head.  The  Kaiser,  when  he  witnessed  it  on  a 
grand  scale  in  his  reviews,  got  drunk  with  the 
sound  of  it.  He  delivered  the  law  to  the  world,  as 
though  Potsdam  were  a  new  Sinai  and  he  were 
uttering  the  law  from  the  thundercloud.  But 
make  no  mistake;  Europe  was  uneasy.  Europe 
was  half  intimidated;  Europe  was  anxious; 
Europe  was  apprehensive.  We  knew  the  whole 
time  what  it  meant.  What  we  did  not  know  was 
the  moment  it  would  come.  This  is  the  menace, 
this  is  the  oppression,  from  which  Europe  has 
suffered  for  fifty  years.  It  paralysed  the  benef- 
icent activities  of  all  States,  which  ought  to  have 
been  devoted  to,  and  concentrated  upon,  the  well- 
being  of  their  people.  They  had  to  think  about 
this  menace,  which  was  there  constantly  as  a 
cloud,  ready  to  burst  over  the  land. 

Take  France.  No  one  can  tell  except  the 
Frenchman  what  they  endured  from  this  tyranny, 
patiently,  gallantly,  with  dignity,  until  the  hour 
of  deliverance  came.  The  best  energies  in  demo- 
cratic   France    have    been    devoted    to    defence 


122  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

against  the  impending  terror.  France  was  like 
a  nation  which  had  pnt  up  its  right  arm  to  ward 
off  a  blow,  and  it  could  not  use  the  whole  of  its 
strength  for  tl^ie  great  things  France  was  capable 
of.  That  great,  bold,  imaginative,  fertile  mind, 
which  would  otherwise  have  been  cleaving  new 
paths  of  progress,  was  paralysed.  This  was  the 
state  of  things  we  had  to  encounter. 


^t>^ 


"The  Hindenhurg  Line." 

The  most  characteristic  of  all  Prussian  institu- 
tions is  the  Hindenburg  line.  What  is  the  Hinden- 
burg  line?  The  Hindenburg  line  is  a  line  drawn 
in  the  territories  of  other  people  with  a  warning 
that  the  inhabitants  of  those  territories  shall  not 
cross  it  at  the  peril  of  their  lives.  That  line  has 
been  drawn  in  Europe  for  fifty  years  in  many 
lands.  You  recollect  what  happened  some  years 
ago  in  France  when  the  French  Foreign  Minister 
was  practically  driven  out  of  office  by  Prussian 
interference.  Why?  What  had  he  done?  He 
had  done  nothing  that  the  Minister  of  an  inde- 
pendent State  had  not  the  most  absolute  right 
to  do.  He  crossed  that  imaginary  line  drawn  in 
French  territory  by  Prussian  despotism,  and  he 
had  to  leave. 

Europe,  after  enduring  this  for  generations, 
made  up  its  mind  at  last  that  the  Hindenburg 
line  must  be  drawn  along  the  legitimate  frontiers 
of  Germany  herself.  It  has  been  an  undoubted 
fight  for  the     emancipation  of  Europe  and  the 


AMERICA  AND  THE  WAR  123 

emancipation  of  the  world.  It  was  hard  at  first 
for  the  people  of  America  quite  to  appreciate 
that.  Germany  had  not  interfered  to  the  same  ex- 
tent with  their  freedom,  if  at  all.  But  at  last  she 
has  endured  the  same  experience  to  which  Europe 
has  been  subjected.  Ajnericans  were  told  they 
were  not  to  be  allowed  to  cross  and  recross  the  At- 
lantic except  at  their  peril.  American  ships  were 
sunk  without  warning.  American  subjects  were 
dro^^^led  with  hardly  an  apology,  in  fact  as  a  mat- 
ter of  German  right.  At  first  America  could 
hardly  believe  it.  They  could  not  think  it  pos- 
sible that  any  sane  people  could  behave  in  that 
manner.  And  they  tolerated  it  once,  they  tole- 
rated it  twice,  until  at  last  it  became  clear  that 
the  Germans  really  meant  it.  The  Hindenburg 
line  was  draA\Ti  along  the  shores  of  America,  and 
Americans  were  told  they  must  not  cross  it. 
America  said,  ''What  is  this?"  and  was  told  that 
this  was  a  line  beyond  which  they  must  not  go. 
Then  America  acted,  and  acted  promptly.  Amer- 
ica said,  ''The  place  for  that  line  is  not  the  At- 
lantic, but  on  the  Rhine,  and  we  mean  to  help 
you  to  roll  it  up. ' '    And  they  have  started. 

The  Inspiratian  of  Freedom. 

There  are  two  great  facts  which  clinch  the 
argument  that  this  is  a  great  struggle  for  free- 
dom. The  first  is  the  fact  that  America  has  come 
in.  She  could  not  have  done  otherwise.  The 
second  is  the  Russian  Revolution.    When  France 


124  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

in  the  eighteenth  century  sent  her  soldiers  to 
America  to  fight  for  the  freedom  and  independ- 
ence of  that  land  France  also  was  an  autocracy. 
But  when  the  Frenchmen  were  in  America  their 
aim  was  freedom,  their  atmosphere  was  freedom, 
and  their  inspiration  was  freedom^  They  ac- 
quired a  taste  for  freedom  and  they  took  it  home, 
and  France  became  free.  That  is  the  story  of 
Russia.  Russia  engaged  in  this  great  war  for  the 
freedom  of  Serbia,  of  Montenegro,  and  Bulgaria. 
Russians  have  fought  for  the  freedom  of  Europe, 
and  they  wanted  to  make  their  o^vn  country  free. 
They  have  done  it.  The  Russian  Revolution  is 
not  merely  the  outcome  of  the  struggle  for  free- 
dom. It  is  a  proof  of  its  character  as  a  struggle 
for  liberty.  And  if  the  Russian  people  realise, 
as  there  is  evidence  they  are  doing,  that  national 
discipline  is  not  incompatible  with  national  free- 
dom, and  know  that  national  discipline  is  essen- 
tial to  the  security  of  national  freedom,  they  will 
indeed  become  a  free  people. 

I  have  been  asking  myself  the  question.  Why 
is  it  that  Germany  deliberately  in  the  third  year 
of  the  war  provoked  America  to  this  declaration, 
and  to  this  action?  Deliberately!  Yes;  reso- 
lutely !  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  reason  was 
that  there  were  certain  elements  in  American  life 
which  Germany  was  under  the  impression  would 
make  it  impossible  for  the  United  States  to  de- 
clare war.  That  I  can  hardly  believe ;  but  the  an- 
swer has  been  afforded  by  General  Hindenburg 
himself  in  the  very  remarkable  interview  which 


AMERICA  AND  THE  WAR  125 

appears,  I  think,  this  morning  in  the  Press.  He 
depended  clearly  on  one  of  two  things — that  the 
submarine  campaign  would  have  destroyed  inter- 
national shipping  to  such  an  extent  that  England 
would  have  been  put  out  of  business  before  Amer- 
ica was  ready.  According  to  his  computation, 
America  would  not  be  ready  for  twelve  months. 
He  does  not  know  America.  Then  alternatively, 
and  when  America  was  ready  at  the  end  of  twelve 
months  with  her  army,  she  would  have  no  ships 
to  transport  that  army  to  the  field  of  battle.  In 
Hindenburg's  words,  '^America  carries  no 
weight."  I  suppose  he  means  that  she  has  no 
ships  to  carry  it  in ! 

''Ships!" 

Well,  it  is  not  wise  always  to  assume,  even  when 
the  German  General  Staff  has  miscalculated,  that 
they  have  had  no  ground  for  their  calculation; 
and  therefore  it  behooves  the  whole  of  the  Allies 
— Britain  and  America  in  particular — to  see  that 
that  reckoning  of  Von  Hindenburg  is  as  false  as 
the  one  he  made  about  the  famous  line  which  we 
have  already  broken.  The  road  to  victory,  the 
guarantee  of  victoiy,  the  absolute  assurance  of 
victory,  is  to  be  found  in  one  word — ships !  In  a 
second  word — ships!  In  a  third  word — ships! 
I  see  that  America,  with  that  quickness  of  com- 
prehension which  characterises  your  nation,  fully 
realises  that,  and  to-day  I  observe  that  they  have 
already  made  an  arrangement  to  build  a  thousand 


126  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

3,000-tonners  for  the  Atlantic.  I  think  that  the 
German  military  advisers  must  already  begin  to 
realise  that  this  is  another  of  the  tragic  miscalcu- 
lations which  is  going  to  lead  them  to  disaster  and 
to  ruin. 

America  to  Study  Our  Blunders. 

But  you  will  pardon  me  for  just  emphasising 
that  we  are  a  slow  people  in  these  islands.  Yes, 
but  sure!  Slowly,  blunderingly  we  go;  but  we 
get  there.  You  get  there  sooner,  and  that  is  why 
I  am  glad  to  see  you  in.  But  may  I  say  we  have 
been  in  this  business  for  three  years.  We  have 
made  blunders;  we  generally  do;  we  have  tried 
every  blunder.  In  golfing  phraseology  we  have 
gone  through  every  bunker;  but  we  have  a  good 
niblick  stroke,  and  we  are  now  right  out  on  the 
course.  May  I  respectfully  suggest  that  it  is 
worth  America's  while  to  study  our  blunders  so 
as  to  begin  just  where  we  are  now — not  where 
we  were  three  years  ago.  That  is  an  advantage 
in  war  time,  and  if  taken  to-day  may  lead  to  as- 
sured victory,  but  taken  to-morrow  may  barely 
avert  disaster.  All  the  Allies  have  discovered 
that.  It  was  a  new  country  for  us  all.  It  was 
trackless,  mapless;  we  had  to  go  by  instinct,  but 
we  found  the  way.  I  am  glad  that  you  are  send- 
ing your  great  naval  and  military  experts  here 
just  to  exchange  experiences  with  men  who  have 
been  through  all  the  dreary,  anxious  course  of 
the  last  three  years. 


AMERICA  AND  THE  WAR  127 

''What  America  Can  Do." 

America  has  helped  us  even  to  win  the  battle 
of  Arras — this  great  battle.  Those  guns  which 
destroyed  the  German  trenches  and  shattered  the 
barbed  wire — I  remember  with  some  friends  of 
mine  I  see  here  discussing  the  matter  and  arrang- 
ing to  order  from  America  the  machines  to  make 
those  guns.  Not  all !  You  did  your  share ;  it  was 
only  a  share,  but  it  is  a  glorious  one.  America 
has  been  making  guns,  making  munitions,  making 
machinery  to  prepare  both,  supplying  us  with 
steel,  and  she  has  all  that  organisation,  that 
wonderful  facility,  adaptability,  and  resourceful- 
ness of  the  great  people  who  inliabit  that  great 
continent.  Ah !  it  was  a  bad  day  for  military  au- 
tocracy in  Prussia  when  she  challenged  the  great 
Republic  of  the  "West.  We  know  what  America 
can  do;  and  we  also  know  that  now  she  is  in  it 
she  will  do  it.  She  will  wage  an  effective  and  suc- 
cessful war. 

There  is  something  more  important.  She  will 
ensure  a  beneficent  peace.  I  am  the  last  man  in 
the  world — ^knowing  for  three  years  what  our 
difficulties  have  been,  what  our  anxieties  have 
been,  what  our  fears  have  been — to  deny  that  the 
succour  which  is  given  us  from  America  is  some- 
thing to  rejoice  in,  and  rejoice  greatly  in;  but 
I  do  not  mind  telling  you  that  I  rejoice  even  more 
in  the  knowledge  that  America  is  going  to  win  her 
right  to  be  at  the  conference  table  when  the  terms 
of  peace  are  being  discussed.     That  conference 


1^8  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

will  settle  the  destiny  of  nations,  the  course  of 
human  life,  for  God  knows  how  many  ages.  It 
would  have  been  a  tragedy  for  mankind  if  Amer- 
ica had  not  been  there,  and  there  with  all  the  in- 
fluence, and  the  power,  and  the  right  which  she 
has  now  won  by  flinging  herself  into  this  great 
struggle. 

"The  Peace  of  Democracy.*' 

I  can  see  peace  coming  now — not  a  peace  which 
would  be  a  beginning  of  war,  not  a  peace  which 
would  be  an  endless  preparation  for  strife  and 
bloodshed,  but  a  real  peace.  The  world  is  an  old 
world  which  has  never  had  peace.  It  has  been 
rocking,  swaying,  like  the  ocean,  and  Europe — 
poor  Europe — has  always  lived  under  the  menace 
of  the  sword.  When  this  war  began  two-thirds 
of  Europe  was  under  autocratic  rule.  It  is  the 
other  way  about  now,  and  democracy  means  peace. 
The  democracy  of  France  did  not  want  war.  The 
democracy  of  Italy  hesitated  long  before  enter- 
ing the  war.  The  democracy  of  this  country 
shrank  from  it  and  shuddered,  and  would  never 
have  entered  that  cauldron  if  it  had  not  been  for 
the  invasion  of  Belgium.  Democracy  sought 
peace,  strove  for  peace,  and  if  Prussia  had  been 
a  democracy  there  would  have  been  no  war. 

But  strange  things  have  happened  in  this  war, 
and  stranger  things  are  to  come — and  they  are 
coming  rapidly.  There  are  times  in  history  when 
the  world  spins  so  leisurely  along  its  destined 
course  that  it  seems  for  centuries  to  be  at  a  stand- 


AMERICA  AND  THE  WAR  129 

still.  There  are  also  times  when  it  rushes  along 
at  a  giddy  pace,  covering  the  traoV  of  centuries 
in  a  year.  These  are  the  times  we  are  living  in 
now.  Six  weeks  ago  Russia  was  an  autocracy. 
She  is  now  one  of  the  most  advanced  democracies 
in  the  world.  To-day  we  are  waging  the  most  de- 
vastating war  that  the  world  has  even  seen.  To- 
morrow— not  perhaps  a  distant  to-morrow — war 
may  be  abolished  for  ever  from  the  categories  of 
human  crimes.  This  may  be  something  like  that 
fierce  outburst  of  winter  which  we  are  now  wit- 
nessing before  the  complete  triumph  of  spring. 

''With  the  Dawn." 

It  was  written  of  those  gallant  men  who  won 
that  victory  on  Monday — men  from  Canada, 
from  Australia,  and  from  this  old  country  which 
has  proved  that  in  spite  of  its  age  it  is  not  de- 
crepit— it  was  written  of  those  gallant  men  that 
they  attacked  with  the  dawn.  Fitting  work  for 
the  dawn  to  drive  out  of  forty  miles  of  French 
soil  those  miscreants  who  had  defiled  it  for  nearly 
three  years.  They  attacked  with  the  dawn.  It 
is  a  significant  phrase.  The  breaking  up  of  the 
dark  rule  of  the  Turk,  which,  for  centuries  has 
clouded  the  sunniest  lands  in  the  world,  the  free- 
ing of  Russia  from  the  oppression  which  has 
covered  it  like  a  cloud  for  so  long,  the  great 
declaration  of  President  Wilson,  coming  with  the 
might  of  the  great  nation  he  represents  in  the 
struggle   for   liberty,   are  heralds   of  the  dawn. 


130  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

"They  attacked  with  the  dawn";  and  those  men 
are  marching  forward  in  the  full  radiance  of  that 
dawn,  and  soon  Frenchmen  and  Americans, 
British,  Italians,  and  Russians,  yea,  Serbians, 
Belgians,  Montenegrins,  and  Rumanians,  will 
march  into  the  full  light  of  perfect  day. 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  EMPIRE. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  A   SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT   THE   eUILDHALL, 

ON  BEING  PRESENTED  WITH  THE  FREEDOM  OF  THE  CITY  OF 

LONDON,  APRIL  27tH,  1917. 

I  THANK  the  City  of  London,  not  merely  for  this 
great  personal  distinction  which  has  been  con- 
ferred upon  me,  but  as  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment in  the  greatest  trial  which  a  nation  can  pass 
through.  I  thank  the  City  of  London  for  its  serv- 
ices to  the  nation  during  that  period.  I  have  had 
three  years'  experience  in  various  offices  in  this 
war.  I  have  always  received  the  readiest  and 
most  patriotic  support  from  the  City.  Not  merely 
in  money,  but  in  men,  have  they  contributed  to  the 
help  of  the  country  in  this  great  war.  You,  Sir, 
referred  in  your  kind  and  flattering  observations 
to  what  occurred  at  the  beginning  of  this  war, 
when  there  was  something  in  the  nature  of  a 
financial  panic,  and  when  the  whole  complicated 
and  apparently  flimsy  structure  of  credit  seemed 
to  have  been  shattered  by  one  blow.  We  shall 
never  forget  those  days.  They  were  days  of 
panic.  There  was  something  for  the  moment  like 
consternation,  stupefaction.  But  British  credit 
survived  that  blow,  in  spite  of  many  predictions 
to  the  contrary.    And  the  City  of  London  took  an 

131 


132  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

honourable  and  leading  part  in  the  promotion 
of  that  last  loan,  which  was  the  most  remarkable 
financial  exploit  that  has  ever  been  witnessed  in 
the  history  of  the  world. 


The  Turning  of  the  Tide. 

You  referred  also  to  the  part  I  took  in  organis- 
ing the  resources  of  the  country  for  the  equip- 
ment of  our  armies  in  the  field  with  the  neces- 
sary material  to  give  them,  at  any  rate,  a  fair 
chance  in  the  fight.  You  remember  the  dark  and 
dreary  time  when  our  gallant  fellows  in  shattered 
trenches  had  night  and  day  to  endure  the  mockery 
of  the  slaughtering  tongues  of  the  German  can- 
non. And  how  they  stood  it !  The  way  in  which 
the  British  infantry  stood  the  guns  of  Napoleon 
for  one  day  is  one  of  the  epics  of  military  history. 
Their  descendants  stood  greater  guns  for  days 
and  nights  and  weeks  and  months,  and  never 
flinched.  It  is  one  of  the  greatest  stories  in  the 
world,  how  they  were  never  broken,  and  it  is  only 
those  who  met  them  and  talked  with  them  who 
can  realise  what  they  endured.  Our  gratitude 
goes  for  ever  to  them.  And,  let  me  say  here,  our 
gratitude  ought  to  go  to  that  brave  little  man  who 
led  them  through  all  those  trying  months  under 
very  great  difficulties,  and  was  never  beaten,  and 
never  lost  heart — Lord  French. 

When  I  took  the  job  in  hand  of  organising  the 
resources  of  this  country,  I  did  it  in  order  to  give 
those  brave  men  a  real  chance  in  the  fight.    And, 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  EMPIRE  133 

thank  God,  they  have  got  it.  The  tide  has  changed, 
thanks  to  the  efforts  put  forth  by,  the  manufac^ 
turers  of  the  country,  the  workmen  of  the  country, 
and,  let  us  not  forget,  by  the  women — the  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  women  who  flocked  to  the 
factories  and  asked  what  they  could  do  to  help 
their  gallant  kinsmen  in  the  field.  They  have 
done  it,  and  the  story  now  is  a  very  different  one. 

There  is  no  better  test  of  victory  than  guns  and 
prisoners.  Before  June,  1915,  we  had  lost  84 
guns  and  a  very  considerable  number  of  prisoners, 
and  we  had  captured,  so  far  as  I  can  recollect,  not 
one  gun.  Since  that  date  we  have  not  lost  one, 
and  we  have  captured  400,  and  when  you  come  to 
the  tale  of  prisoners,  we  have  captured  ten  at 
least  for  every  one.  The  tide  has  changed;  our 
victory  is  becoming  increasingly  assured.  Take, 
if  you  like,  the  difference  between  the  Battle  of 
the  Somme  and  the  last  great  battle,  around  Vimy 
Ridge.  The  Vimy  Ridge  had  cost  the  French 
enonnous  losses.  In  spite  of  untold  gallantry, 
they  had  only  secured  part  of  it.  Entirely  owing 
to  the  fact  that  we  have  superior  equipment — 
and  I  have  always  said  that  better  guns  and  more 
shells  meant  saving  life,  and  this  is  the  proof  of  it 
— we  captured  the  whole  of  the  Vimy  Ridge,  with 
about  200  guns,  at  something  like  one-fifth  of  what 
it  cost  the  French  Army  in  the  days  of  inferior 
equipment  to  attack  it  and  fail  to  capture  it. 

Take  the  first  18  days  of  the  Battle  of  the 
Somme  and  the  first  18  days  of  this  battle.  I  have 
just  had  these  figures.    In  the  first  18  days  of  the 


134  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Battle  of  the  Somme  we  captured  11,000  prisoners 
and  54  guns.  In  the  first  18  days  of  the  Battle  of 
Arras  we  captured  18,000  prisoners  and  230  guns. 
We  have  gained  four  times  as  much  ground,  and 
our  losses  are  exactly  one-half. 

I  will  tell  you  what  that  means.  It  means  not 
merely  ultimate  victory,  but  it  means  that  victory 
is  going  to  be  won  at  less  cost,  and  that  the  chances 
are  growing  as  our  equipment  is  improving.  The 
Germans  know  it,  and  that  is  the  explanation  of 
the  despair  which  has  driven  them  to  black  piracy 
on  the  high  seas.  That  is  the  next  job  we  have  to 
face,  and  we  mean  to  do  it.  They  mean  to  make 
the  sea  absolutely  impassable  for  any  craft.  It  is 
essential  to  victory  for  them  that  they  should  do 
it.  It  is  equally  essential  for  victory  for  us  that 
they  should  fail.  That  is  the  proposition  w^ith 
which  we  are  confronted. 

"What  is  our  minimum  problem!  To  feed  a  pop- 
ulation of  forty-five  millions  in  a  country  which  is 
not  self-supporting,  to  provide  the  necessary  raw 
material  and  food  to  equip  and  feed  our  armies, 
and  to  keep  the  sea  free  for  the  transport  of  troops 
and  their  equipment  for  ourselves  and  our  Allies 
— all  that  has  to  be  done  against  a  swarm  of  pi- 
rates, moving  unseen  under  the  trackless  seas. 
Do  not  let  us  minimise  the  problem.  Unless  we 
thoroughly  appreciate  its  gravity  we  shall  not 
put  our  strength,  our  full  strength,  into  dealing 
with  it.  It  is  the  greatest  attack  ever  directed 
against  our  existence. 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  EMPIRE         135 

The  Future  of  Politics. 

The  future  of  this  country  depends  upon  how 
much  the  politicians  have  learnt.  I  have  heard  of 
politicians  who  think  that  when  the  war  is  over 
the  same  old  machinery  will  be  set  up,  the  same 
old  methods  applied,  and  the  same  old  notions  ad- 
hered to.  People  who  do  not  know  politicians 
think  of  them  as  wild  revolutionaries.  The  wildest 
revolutionary  is  the  most  reactionary  person  in 
the  world. 

There  used  to  be  two  parties  in  this  country. 
Before  the  war  there  were  five,  absolutely  inde- 
pendent of  each  other.  The  people  are  discover- 
ing that  no  party  had  a  monopoly  of  wisdom, 
that  not  even  the  five  parties  together  were  the 
sole  repositories  of  political  sagacity,  and  that 
there  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth  than 
were  dreamt  of  in  the  philosophy  of  any  one,  two, 
or  five  of  these  parties.  That  is  one  of  the  revela- 
tions which  we  have  seen  in  the  lurid  fires  of  this 
war.  We  have  been  driven  to  do  things  in  this 
war  that  no  party  ever  thought  of.  There  is  no 
party  that  does  not  admit  that  these  things  were 
absolutely  necessary  to  save  the  country. 

When  the  war  is  over  and  reconstruction  begins, 
I  hope  and  trust  and  pray  that  we  are  not  going 
to  dive  into  the  pigeon-holes  of  any  party  for 
dust-laden  precedents  and  progranunes.  Let  us 
think  out  the  best  methods  for  ourselves  in  the 
face  of  seaching  facts  we  knew  not  of  before  the 
war.    We  are  a  thousand  years  older  and  wiser. 


136  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

The  experience  of  generations  has  been  crowded 
into  just  a  few  winters,  and  we  should  indeed  be 
unworthy  of  the  great  destiny  to  which  Provi- 
dence has  called  this  generation  of  men  if  we 
threw  all  that  away  for  the  sake  of  any  formulas 
that  were  framed  before  the  Flood.  There  is  no 
part  of  the  whole  sphere  of  statesmanship  where 
there  is  a  greater  need  for  us  to  revise  our  ideas 
than  in  our  attitude  towards  that  great  common- 
wealth of  nations  which  is  known  as  the  British 
Empire.  In  the  past  we  treated  it  as  an  abstrac- 
tion— a  glorious  abstraction,  but  an  abstraction. 
The  war  has  shown  us,  all  of  us,  that  the  British 
Empire  is  a  fact,  nay,  a  factor,  the  most  potent 
factor  to-day  in  the  struggle  for  human  liberty. 

We  sent  a  hundred  thousand  men  to  France  in 
August,  1914.  They  turned  the  tide  of  history. 
The  Dominions  and  the  great  Empire  of  India 
have  contributed  one  million  men.  That  has  trans- 
formed our  ideas  as  to  the  reality  and  the  benef- 
icence of  the  British  Empire.  The  world  cannot 
afford  to  let  it  dissolve.  But  the  choice  must  be 
between  immediate  concentration  and  ultimate  dis- 
solution. We  can  never  let  things  remain  where 
they  were.  It  may  be  said  that  the  shadowy  char- 
acter of  the  relations  between  us  and  the  Domin- 
ions and  the  great  territories  of  the  East  have 
produced  this  real  cohesion.  That  was  all  very 
well  before  they  made  great  sacrifices.  They  have 
established  claims  now  to  a  real  partnership. 
Henceforth  effective  consultation  must  be  the  only 
basis  of  co-operation.    If  our  action  brings  them 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  EMPIRE  137 

into  trouble,  as  it  has,  costing  them  mj^riads  of 
precious  lives,  they  must  henceforth  be  consulted 
beforehand. 

Methods  must  be  carefully  considered.  The 
whirl  of  a  great  war  is  not  the  best  time  for  think- 
ing out  perhaps  new  Constitutions,  but  our  Coun- 
cils of  Empire  must  at  any  rate  be  a  reality.  The 
Imperial  War  Cabinet,  the  first  ever  held,  has 
been  a  demonstration  of  the  value  of  these  coun- 
cils. Our  colleagues  from  the  Dominions  and  from 
the  great  Empire  of  India  have  not  taken  part, 
believe  me,  in  a  formal  conference  to  carry  resolu- 
tions. They  have  had  a  real  share  in  our  coun- 
cils and  in  our  decisions,  and  they  have  been  a 
great  source  of  strength  and  wisdom  to  our  de- 
liberations. They  have  come  there  with  fresh 
minds.  They  have  viewed  this  world-conflict  from, 
as  it  were,  different  peaks.  Minds  running  the 
same  course  for  a  long  time  are  apt  to  get  rutty, 
and  the  weightier  the  minds  the  deeper  the  ruts. 
You  require  fresh  minds  to  lift  the  cart  out  of 
those  worn  furrows,  and  we  have  had  them.  We 
have  had  war  decisions  of  the  most  far-reaching 
character,  in  which  our  colleagues  from  beyond 
the  seas  have  assisted  us.  These  great  problems 
in  regard  to  submarines,  shipping,  and  food,  as 
well  as  our  military  decisions,  have  all  come  for 
review  at  councils  in  wliich  they  have  taken  part. 

But  we  must  do  more.  I  feel  that  this  experi- 
ment must  be  incorporated  in  the  fabric  of  the  Em- 
pire. We  have  been  taught  by  the  war  the  real 
value  of  the  Empire  as  a  world-force,  and  one  of 


138  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

the  first  duties  of  statesmanship  in  the  future  will 
be  to  take  all  measures  which  are  necessary  to  aid 
in  the  development  of  the  stupendous  resources 
of  the  Empire.  That  ought  to  be  our  special 
care,  our  special  pride,  as  it  undoubtedly  would 
be  our  special  security.  We  want  to  develop  the 
lands  under  the  Flag.  If  fifty  years  ago  we  had 
directed  our  minds  and  our  power  and  our  in- 
fluence to  that  end,  you  would  now  have  had 
double  the  population  you  have  got  in  these 
Dominions,  by  diverting  the  tide  of  emigration  to 
British  Dominions  instead  of  other  lands,  and  you 
Avould  have  attracted  the  virile  populations  of 
Europe  in  addition  to  that. 

In  the  future  we  have  decided  that  it  is  the 
business  of  statesmanship  in  Great  Britain,  as 
well  as  in  the  lands  beyond  the  seas,  to  knit 
the  Empire  together  in  closer  bonds  of  interest,  of 
trade,  of  commerce,  of  business,  and  of  general 
intercourse  in  affairs. 

We  have  given  grave  consideration  to  this  prob- 
lem, and  have  decided  that  in  order  to  develop 
these  enormous  territories  in  future  it  is  neces- 
sary that  exceptional  encouragement  should  be 
given  to  the  products  of  each  part  of  the  Empire. 
We  believe  that  a  system  of  preference  can  be  es- 
tablished which  will  not  involve  the  imposition  of 
burdens  upon  food.  We  believe  that  it  can  be 
done  without  that,  and,  of  course,  with  food  at 
its  scarcest  and  at  its  dearest,  this  is  not  the  time 
to  talk  about  putting  additional  burdens  on  food. 
But  for  purposes  of  preference  that  would  not  be 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  EMPIRE  139 

essential.  You  can  secure  that  by  other  means, 
and  more  particularly  by  taking  measures  which 
other  lands  have  taken  for  improving  the  com- 
munications between  one  part  of  their  dominions 
and  another.  By  these  means  the  jjroducts  of 
one  countrj'^  inside  this  great  Imperial  Common- 
wealth can  be  brought  more  freely,  readily,  and 
economically  to  the  markets  of  the  others. 

This  great  Emj^ire  has  infinite  resources  in 
wealth,  in  minerals,  in  food  products,  in  timber, 
and  in  every  cormnodity  needful  for  man,  and  it 
is  obviously  to  the  advantage,  not  merely  of  the 
particular  countries  where  these  products  come 
from,  but  of  every  other  part  of  the  Empire,  in- 
cluding the  United  Kingdom,  that  these  commodi- 
ties should  be  developed  to  the  utmost.  It  en- 
riches, it  strengthens,  and  it  binds  together  the 
Empire  as  a  whole. 


Therefore  I  say  to  Britain,  she  has  faced  the 
problems  of  war  with  a  courage  that  has  amazed 
the  w^orld ;  she  must  face  the  problems  of  peace  in 
the  same  great  spirit. 


RESTATEMENT  OF  THE  CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF 
THE  WAR. 

EXTRACTS  PROM   A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  GLASGOW,  ON  BE- 
ING PRESENTED   WITH   THE  FREEDOM    OF   THAT   CITY,   JUNE 
29th,  1917. 

It  is  a  satisfaction  for  Britain  in  these  ter- 
rible times  that  no  share  of  the  responsibility  for 
these  events  rests  on  her.  She  is  not  the  Jonah 
in  this  storm.  The  part  taken  by  our  counti^^  in 
this  conflict,  in  its  origin  and  in  its  conduct,  has 
been  as  honourable  and  chivalrous  as  any  part 
ever  taken  in  any  country  in  any  operation.  We 
might  imagine  from  declarations  which  were  made 
by  the  Germans,  aye,  and  even  by  a  few  people 
in  this  country  who  are  constantly  referring  to 
''our  German  comrades,"  that  this  terrible  war 
was  wantonly  and  wickedly  provoked  by  England 
— never  Scotland,  never  Wales,  and  never  Ireland 
— ^wantonly  provoked  by  England  to  increase  her 
possessions  and  to  destroy  the  influence,  the 
power,  and  the  prosperity  of  a  dangerous  rival. 
There  never  was  a  more  foolish  travesty  of  the 
actual  facts.  It  happened  three  years  ago,  or  less, 
but  there  have  been  so  many  bewildering  events 
crowded  into  those  intervening  years  that  some 
people  might  have  forgotten,  perhaps,  some  of  the 

140 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR      141 

essential  facts,  and  it  is  essential  that  we  should 
now  and  again  restate  them,  not  merely  to  refute 
the  calumniators  of  our  native  land,  but  in  order 
to  sustain  the  hearts  of  her  people  by  the  un- 
swerving conviction  that  no  part  of  the  guilt  of 
this  terrible  bloodshed  rests  upon  their  conscience. 

Britain  the  Last  to  Enter  the  War. 

What  are  the  main  facts?  There  were  six 
countries  which  entered  the  war  at  the  beginning. 
Britain  w^as  the  last,  not  the  first.  Before  she 
entered  the  war  Britain  made  every  effort  to 
avoid  it,  begged,  supplicated,  and  entreated  that 
there  should  be  no  conflict.  I  was  a  member  of 
the  Cabinet  at  the  time,  and  I  remember  the 
earnest  endeavours  we  made  to  persuade  Ger- 
many and  Austria  not  to  precipitate  Europe  into 
this  welter  of  blood.  We  begged  them  to  summon 
a  European  conference.  Had  that  conference 
met,  arguments  against  provoking  such  a  ca- 
tastrophe were  so  overwhelming  that  there  would 
never  have  been  a  war.  Germany  knew  that,  so 
she  rejected  the  conference.  Although  Austria 
was  prepared  to  accept  it,  she  suddenly  declared 
war,  and  yet  we  are  the  people  who  wantonly  pro- 
voked this  war  in  order  to  attack  Germany!  We 
begged  Germany  not  to  attack  Belgium,  and  pro- 
duced a  treaty  signed  by  the  King  of  Prussia,  as 
well  as  the  King  of  England,  pledging  himself  to 
protect  Belgium  against  an  invader,  and  we  said, 
*'If  you  invade  Belgium  we  shall  have  no  altema- 


142  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

tive  but  to  defend  it."  The  enemy  invaded  Bel- 
gium, and  now  they  say,  "Why,  forsooth,  you, 
England,  provoked  this  war. "  It  is  not  quite  the 
story  of  the  wolf  and  the  lamb.  I  will  tell  you 
why:  because  Germany  expected  to  find  a  lamb 
and  found  a  lion.  So  much  for  our  responsibility 
for  war,  and  it  is  necessary  that  the  facts  should 
be  stated  and  restated,  because  we  want  to  carry 
on  this  war  with  a  pure,  clear  conscience  to  the 
end. 

The  Military  Situation. 

But  you  will  ask  me  what  progress  are  we  mak- 
ing with  the  war,  and  I  mean  to  tell  you  my  view 
of  that.  I  am  steeped  every  day — morning,  noon, 
and  night — in  the  perplexities  and  difficulties  and 
the  anxieties  of  this  grim  business,  but  all  the 
same  I  feel  confident.  The  difficulties  are  there  to 
be  overcome,  the  anxieties  to  be  faced,  the  disaj)- 
pointments  to  be  persevered  through.  What  is 
the  present  military  position  I  No  doubt,  startling 
events  in  Russia  modified  the  military  situation 
this  year  temporarily  to  our  disadvantage,  but 
permanently  for  the  better.  What  has  happened 
recently  on  both  the  Western  fronts  shows  what 
could  have  been  accomplished  this  year,  if  all  the 
Allied  forces  had  been  ready  to  bring  an  all-round 
pressure  to  bear.  In  training,  in  experience,  in 
equipment,  our  Army  is  infinitely  better  than  it 
has  ever  been.  The  Lord  Provost  has  referred 
to  the  munitions  work  of  this  countiy.  The  finest 
collection  of  trench-pounding  machiner}^  which  any 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR      143 

army  has  ever  seen  is  now  in  the  possession  of 
the  British  forces.  You  have  only  tp  look  at  what 
happened  at  the  Vimy  and  Messines  Ridges. 
Fortifications  which  had  defined  the  power  of  the 
British  and  French  armies  for  two  or  three  years 
were  swept  away  by  our  great  attack,  and  by  the 
gallant  onslaught  of  our  Allies.  The  valour  of 
the  French  troops  against  the  dense  hordes  of 
German  troops  must  have  impressed  all  as  a  con- 
spicuous example  of  what  that  great  nation  is  ca- 
pable of;  and  there  are  the  brilliant  achievements 
of  our  Italian  comrades,  who  with  dash,  courage, 
and  skill  storm  great  Alpine  heights  in  the  teeth 
of  those  legions  of  Austria. 

The  Russian  Situation. 

We  have  demonstrated  the  superiority  of  the 
Allied  armies  in  all  these  great  conflicts,  but  no 
doubt  for  the  moment  the  difficulty  w^e  have  to  deal 
with  is  that  the  internal  distractions  in  Russia 
have  robbed  the  Russian  Army  of  the  power  to 
put  forth  the  whole  of  its  strength.  Broken  di- 
visions from  the  West  have  been  taken  to  the 
East  and  fresh  divisions  from  the  East  have  been 
brought  back  to  the  West,  and  the  same  thing  ap- 
plies to  the  German  and  the  Austrian  artillery. 
The  Russian  Revolution,  beneficent  as  it  un- 
doubtedly is  and  undoubtedly  great  as  will  be  its 
results  both  this  year  and  even  more  hereafter, 
has  had  the  effect  of  postponing  a  complete  vic- 
tory.   Revolution  is  a  fever  brought  about  by  the 


144.  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

constant  and  reckless  disregard  of  the  laws  of 
health  in  the  government  of  a  countiy.  While 
it  is  on,  the  strength  of  a  country  is  diverted  to 
the  internal  conflict  which  is  raging  in  its  blood, 
and  it  is  naturally  not  so  effective  for  external  use 
during  that  period.  The  patient  takes  some  time 
to  recover  his  normal  temperature,  but  when  he 
begins  to  recover,  if  his  constitution  is  good — and 
the  Russian  nation  has  as  fine  a  constitution  as 
any  nation  ever  possessed — then  he  will  regain  it 
straight  at  a  bound,  and  be  mightier  and  more 
formidable  than  ever.  That  is  the  case  in  Russia, 
Although  this  distraction  has  had  the  effect  of 
postponing  complete  victory,  it  has  made  victory 
more  sure  than  ever,  more  complete  than  ever. 
What  is  more  important,  it  has  made  surer  than 
ever  the  quality  of  the  victory  we  shall  gain. 

What  do  I  mean  when  I  say  it  has  ensured  a 
better  quality  of  victory?  I  will  tell  you,  because 
that  is  important.  There  were  many  of  us  whose 
hearts  were  filled  with  gloomy  anxiety  when  we 
contemplated  all  the  prospects  of  a  great  peace 
conference  summoned  to  settle  the  future  of 
democracy  with  one  of  the  most  powerful  partners 
at  that  table  the  most  reactionary  autocracy  in 
the  world.  I  remember  very  well  discussing  the 
very  point  with  one  of  the  greatest  of  French 
statesmen,  and  he  had  great  misgivings  about 
what  would  happen.  Now  Russia  is  unshackled, 
Russia  is  free,  and  the  representatives  of  Russia 
at  the  Peace  Congress  will  be  representatives  of  a 
free  people  fighting  for  freedom,  arranging  the 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR      145 

future  of  democracy  on  the  lines  of  freedom. 
That  is  what  I  mean  when  I  say  that  not  merely 
will  the  Russian  Revolution  ensure  more  com- 
plete victory,  it  will  ensure  victory  more  exalted 
than  any  one  could  have  contemplated  before. 

I  ventured  in  August,  1915,  to  launch  into  the 
realms  of  prophecy.  It  was  rather  a  dangerous 
thing  to  do,  but  if  you  will  allow  me  I  will  quote 
what  I  said  then  about  Russia.  I  referred  to  the 
great  Russian  defeat  by  the  German  forces.  The 
Russian  armies  were  broken,  the  Russian  armies 
were  in  full  retreat,  and  things  looked  darker 
than  they  had  ever  done  in  the  whole  course  of  the 
war.  "The  Eastern  sky  is  dark  and  lowering,  the 
stars  have  been  clouded  over.  I  regard  the  stormy 
horizon  with  anxiety  but  with  no  dread.  To-day 
I  can  see  the  colour  of  a  new  hope  beginning  to 
empurple  the  sky.  The  enemy  in  their  victorious 
march  know  not  what  they  are  doing.  Let  them 
beware,  for  they  are  unshackling  Russia.  With 
their  monster  artillery  they  are  shattering  the 
rusty  bars  that  fettered  the  strength  of  the  people 
of  Russia.  You  can  see  them  shaking  their  power- 
ful limbs  free  from  the  stifling  debris,  and  pre- 
paring for  the  conflict  with  a  new  spirit.  They 
[the  Germans]  are  hammering  a  sword  that  will 
destroy  them  and  freeing  a  p-roat  nation  to  \vield 
it  with  a  more  potent  stroke  and  a  mightier  sweep 
than  it  ever  yet  commanded." 

That  little  speech  got  me  into  trouble  with  the 
Russian  Court,  but  it  is  exactly  what  has  hap- 
pened.   That  was  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  an- 


146  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

tocracy,  and  Russia  and  the  Russian  people  felt 
that  the  system  which  had  brought  such  disaster 
upon  them  could  not  be  safely  entrusted  in  future 
with  the  honour  of  that  great  nation.  Russia  is 
now  free,  Russia  is  now  unfettered,  and  when 
the  distractions  have  passed  away,  Russia  will 
be  more  powerful,  Russia  will  be  more  formidable 
than  ever,  because  in  future  the  whole  of  her 
power  will  be  cast  on  the  side  of  liberty  and  de- 
mocracy, and  not  of  autocracy. 

The  Burden  Cast  Upon  the  Other  Allies. 

Meanwhile,  France,  Italy,  and  ourselves  have 
to  bear  the  greatest  share  of  the  burden,  and  I 
should  like  to  say  to  those  who  hailed  the  Rus- 
sian Revolution  with  delight  as  well  as  condemn- 
ing and  doing  their  best  to  thwart  the  military 
efforts  of  their  own  country,  that  but  for  these 
military  efforts  the  Russian  Revolution  would 
have  had  no  chance  to  fructify.  What  would 
have  happened  if  we  had  not  been  ready,  if  we 
had  not  had  this  great  Army  prepared,  if  we  had 
not  possessed  such  enormous  equipment?  I  will 
tell  you  what  would  have  happened.  Germany 
would  have  concentrated  one  desperate  effort  to 
overwhelm  free  democracy  in  France  while  Rus- 
sia was  engaged  in  the  troubles  of  her  revolution, 
and  while  the  new  democracy  was  arising  in  the 
East,  the  old  democracy  in  the  West,  the  great  old 
democracy  of  France,  would  have  been  strangled. 
How  long  do  you  think  the  new  democracy,  the 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR      147 

new  democracy  of  the  East,  would  have  survived 
it?  Not  long,  and  you  would  have  had  one  great 
outstanding  military  autocracy  in  Europe  govern- 
ing from  the  East  to  the  West,  and  only  these  lit- 
tle islands  standing  between  the  world  and  dis- 
aster. 

I  would  counsel  those  who  criticise  the  measures 
we  have  taken  to  mobilise  the  strength  of  this 
country — strong  measures,  ruthless  measures  if 
you  will,  interfering  measures  if  you  will,  but 
measures  which  will  accomplish  their  purpose — to 
dwell  upon  the  catastrophe  that  would  have  be- 
fallen the  free  democracies  throughout  the  world 
if  we  had  not  done  so.  It  was  Britain,  the  strength 
of  Britain  flung  into  the  breach,  that  once  more 
saved  Europe  and  human  liberties.  Even  dur- 
ing the  last  few  weeks,  when  Russia  was  not  ready, 
we  defeated  the  German  Army  at  its  strongest, 
and  at  its  boastfulest.  Now  Russia  is  gaining 
strength  every  day;  it  has  a  capable,  strong 
Government  of  able,  patriotic  men  guiding  its 
destinies.  Russia  never  had  a  better  Government 
than  the  men  who  are  now  wielding  the  power, 
and  her  armies  will  fight  henceforth  with  that 
power  which  is  inspired  by  freedom. 

And  America — always  the  mainstay  and  the 
hope  of  freedom — America,  who  never  engaged 
in  a  war  yet  except  for  freedom — America  is  be- 
ginning to  send  her  valiant  sons  to  the  battlefields 
of  Europe  to  fight  around  the  standards  of  liberty. 
That  is  why  I  say  that  although  victory  may  have 
been  postponed  by  the   events   of  the  last  few 


MS  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

months  in  Russia,  victory  will  be  more  complete, 
victory  will  be  on  higher  lines,  than  ever  we 
could  have  hoped. 

The  Conditions  of  Victory. 

It  is  assured,  under  two  conditions :  the  first  is 
that  the  submarine  attack  must  be  defeated,  or 
kept  within  reasonable  bounds.  They  may,  and 
probably  will,  drive  us  to  further  restrictions  in 
some  trades,  perhaps  to  hardships,  but  all  de- 
pends on  the  nation,  for  after  carefully  reckon- 
ing the  chances,  the  probabilities,  the  Government 
have  come  to  the  conclusion,  on  the  best  advice 
that  we  can  seek,  that  submarines  can  neither 
starve  us  at  home  nor  drive  our  armies  out  of  the 
field  abroad.  In  the  words  of  the  song  we  had  at 
the  beginning,  despite  the  worst  they  can  do, 
''Britain  will  rule  the  waves"  through  the  war 
and  after  the  war.  Our  losses  in  May  and  June 
were  heavy,  but  they  were  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  tons  beneath  the  Admiralty  forecast  of  what 
they  would  be.  We  are  beginning  to  get  them. 
The  arrangements  that  have  been  made  for  frus- 
trating them  and  for  destroying  them  are  im- 
proving, and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that 
if  we  all  do  our  part  the  German  submarine  will 
be  almost  as  great  a  failure  as  the  German  Zep- 
pelin. 

What  is  the  next  condition?  The  moral  of  the 
nation  must  be  kept  up;  that  is  essential.     Our 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR      149 

Army  is  great,  and  the  Army  now  is  the  people. 
There  is  hardly  a  household  which  has  not  con- 
tributed to  tlie  Army.  It  is  a  sample  of  the  peo- 
ple God  planted  in  these  islands.  We  can  view 
with  pride  the  achievements  of  our  Army.  I  am 
not  afraid  of  the  Army,  but  take  care  that  the 
spirit  of  the  people  behind  them  is  as  good  as  that 
of  the  Army;  if  not,  it  affects  the  Army.  I  met 
a  young  fellow  who  had  been  in  the  fighting  at 
Vimy  and  at  Arras,  and  he  said :  "We  came  back, 
and  we  were  all  so  cheerful.  We  saw  the  Huns 
running  for  four  or  five  miles  before  British  bayo- 
nets. We  stoimed  positions  that  defied  armies 
for  two  or  three  years,  and  we  were  so  cheerful 
when  we  came  back.  Then  we  picked  up  the  pa- 
pers full  of  grumblings  and  grousings  from  Eng- 
land.'' His  conclusion  was  a  memorable  one: 
* '  You  will  never  give  us  a  chance  of  being  cheer- 
ful." That  is  not  fair  to  the  Army.  After  all, 
everybody  is  doing  his  best  within  human  limi- 
tations— generals,  officers,  soldiers,  admirals, 
sailors,  officials,  employers,  workmen,  yea.  Minis- 
ters of  the  Crown — forgive  me  for  saying  it — we 
are  doing  our  best  in  our  way.  I  cannot  see  any 
slackening  or  indolence  anywhere;  and  will  you 
allow  me  to  say  there  is  one  man  who  is  work- 
ing as  hard  as  the  hardest-worked  man  in  this 
country,  and  that  is  the  Sovereign  of  this  realm.* 
I  am  quite  sure  His  Majesty  the  King  will  ap- 
preciate the  fact  that  the   citizens   of  Glasgow 

*  Here  the  whole  of  the  audience  rose  spontaneously  to  their 
feet  and  san2'  "God  Save  the  Kino." 


150  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

realise  tlie  contribution  he  is  making  to  tlie  work 
of  the  nation  under  these  trying  conditions. 


''Keep  Steady!" 

What  is  wanted,  therefore,  is  that  the  nation 
should  keep  steady.  It  is  he  who  endureth  to  the 
end  that  will  win.  Don't  allow  the  nation  to  be 
"rattled."  I  rather  object  to  John  Bull  always 
being  represented  as  if  he  were  in  a  towering 
rage  with  somebody  or  something,  growling  at 
his  food,  and  generally  swearing  at  everybody. 
That  does  not  represent  him.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  he  is  a  good-tempered,  forbearing,  patient, 
tenacious  old  gentleman,  who  has  cultivated  the 
habit  of  never  giving  in  once  he  has  made  up  his 
mind  about  it.  There  are  people  who  think  the 
nation  is  like  a  petrol  machine,  that  it  can  only 
be  driven  by  a  rapid  succession  of  petty  explo- 
sions, and  unless  they  always  hear  its  spluttering 
they  think  the  machine  is  at  a  standstill.  Not  at 
all.  Let  us  keep  steady,  that  is  my  advice  to  the 
nation;  and  I  appeal  to  those  who  address  the 
public,  whether  on  platforms  or  in  the  public 
Press,  to  keep  up  the  nerve  of  the  nation,  to  sup- 
port it  in  its  purpose.  If  we  grip  hard  we  shall 
win  victory,  but  don't  let  us  fray  the  rope,  other- 
wise it  might  not  bear  the  strain.  I  specially  ap- 
peal to  the  great  journals  of  this  country.  Every 
morning  and  evening  they  are  in  the  households 
of  the  people,  and  if  they  breathe  distrust  and  dis- 
sension and  suspicion  they  weaken  the  purpose 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR      151 

of  the  people  gradually;  but  if  they  breathe  con- 
fidence, unity,  strength,  and  hope,  it  adds  to  the 
power  of  the  people  to  go  througli  this  terrible 
crisis.  That  is  why  I  am  appealing  first  of  all 
to  those  who  have  power  and  influence  in  the  land, 
whether  great  or  small,  each  in  his  circle  helping 
the  spirit  of  the  nation  to  support  its  purpose, 
give  strength  to  its  wdll.  Then  victory  is  as- 
sured to  us — as  surely  as  the  rising  of  the  sun  to- 
morrow 

The  Allies'  War  Aims. 

There  are  people  asking:  When  are  you  go- 
ing to  bring  this  war  to  an  end,  how  are  you  go- 
ing to  bring  it  to  an  end,  and  when  you  have 
brought  it  to  an  end  what  end  do  you  want  for  it? 
All  of  them  are  justifiable  questions,  and  all  of 
them  demand  reasonable  answer,  and  I  propose  to 
make  my  contribution  to  the  solution  of  these 
direct  and  searching  questions. 

In  my  judgment  this  war  will  come  to  an  end 
when  the  Allied  Powers  have  reached  the  aims 
w^hich  they  set  out  to  attain  when  they  accepted 
the  challenge  thro\vn  down  by  Germany  to  civilisa- 
tion. These  aims  were  set  out  recently  by  Presi- 
dent Wilson  with  his  unrivalled  gift  of  succinct 
and  trenchant  speech.  As  soon  as  these  objec- 
tives are  reached  and  guaranteed,  this  war  ought 
to  come  to  an  end,  but  if  it  comes  to  an  end  a 
single  hour  before,  it  will  be  the  greatest  disaster 
that  has  ever  befallen  mankind.  I  hear  there  are 
people  going  about  the  country  saying  Germany 


152  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

is  prepared  to  give  you  peace  now,  an  honourable 
peace,  and  a  satisfactory  peace.  Well,  let  us  ex- 
amine that.  If  it  is  true,  then  it  would  be  criminal 
if  we  sacrificed  more  precious  life  and  treasure, 
and  prolonged  the  wretchedness  and  anxiety  and 
suffering  associated  with  the  war.  No  doubt  you 
can  have  peace;  you  can  have  peace  now.  Ger- 
many will  give  us  peace  now — at  a  price.  Ger- 
many wants  peace,  even  Prussia  ardently  desires 
it.  They  don't  enjoy  seeing  their  veteran  soldiers 
hurled  back  time  after  time  by  what  they  regard 
as  an  amateur  army.  It  does  not  give  them 
pleasure;  it  does  not  rouse  their  enthusiasm;  it 
does  not  make  them  eager  to  get  more  of  it.  They 
don't  like  to  see  their  crack — somebody  said 
cracked — regiments  prisoners  of  war,  and  hun- 
dreds of  their  cannon  captured.  It  is  humiliat- 
ing constantly  to  fall  back.  ''A  little  territory 
here  and  a  little  land  there,  and  just  a  few  privi- 
leges in  the  other  direction,  and  we  will  clear 
out." 

"Bmjing  Out  the  Goth." 

Well,  3^ou  can  have  peace  at  that  price,  but  do 
you  know  what  it  would  be?  The  old  policy  of 
buying  out  the  Goth,  which  eventually  destroyed 
the  Roman  Empire,  and  threw  Europe  into  the 
ages  of  barbarous  cruelties.  Believe  me,  that 
policy  had  its  undoubted  advantages.  I  can  hear 
the  echoes  of  the  pacifists  of  the  day  in  the  Roman 
Forum  dwelling  on  the  fact  that  if  they  could  only 
buy  out  the   Goths   at  a  small  price  compared 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR     153 

with  the  war,  a  little  territory  and  a  little  cash, 
the  Roman  youth  would  be  spared  the  terrors 
of  war,  and  their  parents  the  anxieties  of  war, 
people  of  all  ranks  and  classes  would  avoid  the 
hardships  of  war,  and  be  able  to  continue  their 
lives  of  comfort  and  luxury  and  ease.  The 
pacifists  of  the  day,  when  they  made  the  bargain 
that  avoided  bloodshed,  had  only  transmitted  it 
to  the  children.  You  remember  what  the  Roman 
Senator  said  of  one  of  these  bargains,  which  gave 
peace  for  the  moment  to  the  Roman  Empire.  He 
said  ''This  is  not  a  peace,  it  is  a  pact  of  serv- 
tude."  So  it  was.  If  they  had  bravely  and  wisely 
faced  their  responsibilities  what  would  have  hap- 
pened? Rome  would  have  thrown  off  its  sloth  as 
Britain  did  in  1914;  its  blood  cleansed  by  sacrifice, 
the  old  vitality,  the  old  virility  of  the  race  would 
have  been  restored,  Rome  would  have  been 
grander  than  ever,  its  rule  would  have  been  more 
beneficent,  and  the  world  would  have  been  spared 
centuries  of  cruelties  and  chaos. 

German  Offers. 

Yon  can  have  peace  to-day,  but  it  would  be  on 
a  basis  that  history  has  demonstrated  to  be  fatal 
to  the  lives  of  any  great  commonwealth  that  pur- 
chased tranquillity  upon  it.  I  am  told  that  if  you 
are  prepared  to  make  peace  now,  Germany,  for 
instance,  would  restore  the  independence  of  Bel- 
gium. But  who  says  so?  There  are  men  in  this 
country  who  profess  to  know  a  good  deal  about 


154.  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

the  intentions  of  German  statesmen.  No  German 
statesman  has  ever  said  they  would  restore  the 
independence  of  Belgium.  The  German  Chan- 
cellor came  very  near  it,  but  the  Junkers  forth- 
with fell  upon  him,  and  he  was  boxed  soundly  on 
the  ear  by  the  mailed  fist,  and  he  has  never  re- 
peated the  offence.  He  said:  "We  will  restore 
Belgium  to  its  people,  but  it  must  form  part  of  the 
economic  system  of  Germany,  of  the  military  and 
naval  defence  of  Germany.  We  must  have  some 
control  over  its  ports."  That  is  the  sort  of  inde- 
pendence Edward  I.  offered  to  Scotland,  and  af- 
ter a  good  many  years  Scotland  gave  its  final  an- 
swer at  Bannockbum.  That  is  not  independence 
— that  is  vassalage. 

The  Meaning  of  Indemnity. 

Then  there  comes  the  doctrine  of  the  status 
quo — no  annexations,  no  indemnities.  No  .  Ger- 
man speeches  are  explicit  on  that.  But  what  does 
indemnity  mean?  A  man  breaks  into  your  house, 
turns  you  out  for  three  years,  murders  some  of 
the  inmates,  and  is  guilty  of  every  infamy  that 
barbarism  can  suggest,  occupies  your  premises  for 
three  years,  and  turns  round  and  says  when  the 
law  is  beginning  to  go  against  him,  *'Take  your 
house;  I  am  willing  to  give  you  the  status  quo. 
I  will  not  even  charge  you  any  indemnity."  But 
even  a  pacifist,  if  it  were  done  in  his  house,  would 
turn  round  and  say, '  *  You  have  wronged  me.  You 
have   occupied  these  premises   for  three   years. 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR      165 

You  have  done  me  an  injury.  You  must  pay  com- 
pensation. There  is  not  a  law  in  the  civilised 
world  that  does  not  make  it  an  essential  part  of 
justice  that  you  should  do  so."  And  lie  says  in 
a  lofty  way,  '*My  principle  is  *No  indemnity.'  " 
It  is  not  a  question  of  being  vindictive,  it  is  not 
a  question  of  pursuing  revenge;  indemnity  is  an 
essential  part  of  a  mechanism  of  civilisation  in 
every  land  and  clime;  otherwise,  what  guarantee 
have  you  against  a  repetition,  against  the  man 
remaining  there  for  three  years  and,  when  it  has 
got  rather  too  hot  for  him,  clearing  out  and  pay- 
ing neither  rent  nor  compensation?  Wliy,  every 
man  in  this  land  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  any 
strong-handed  villain. 

There  is  no  law,  there  is  no  civilisation  in  that. 
You  could  not  keep  the  commimity  together.  We 
are  fighting  for  the  essential  principles  of  civili- 
sation, and  unless  we  insist  upon  it  we  shall  not 
have  vindicated  what  is  the  basis  of  right  in  every 
land.    The  same  thing  applies  to  Serbia. 

But  they  say,  ''That  is  not  what  you  are  after. 
You  are  after  our  colonies  and  Mesopotamia,  and 
perhaps  Palestine."  If  we  had  entered  into  this 
war  purely  for  Gennan  colonies  we  would  not  have 
raised  an  army  of  three  or  four  millions.  We 
could  have  got  them  all  without  adding  a  single 
battalion  to  the  army  we  had,  and  if  Germany 
had  won  elsewhere  we  should  have  defied  the 
whole  of  her  victorious  legions  to  take  one  of  them 
back.  If  we  engaged  in  the  gigantic  enterprise, 
it  was  not  for  German  colonies.     Our  greatest 


156  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

army  is  in  France.  "What  territory  are  we  after 
there?  We  have  an  army  in  Salonika.  What  land 
are  we  coveting  there?  We  are  there  to  recover 
for  people  who  have  been  driven  out  of  their 
patrimony  the  land  which  belongs  to  them  and  to 
their  fathers. 

Mesopotmnia. 

But  they  say,  **What  is  going  to  happen  to  those 
colonies?  What  is  going  to  happen  to  Mesopo- 
tamia?" Well,  if  you  like,  take  Mesopotamia. 
Mesopotamia  is  not  Turkish,  never  has  been 
Turkish ;  the  Turk  is  as  much  an  alien  in  Mesopo- 
tamia as  the  German,  and  every  one  knows  how 
he  ruled  it.  This  was  the  Garden  of  Eden.  What 
a  land  it  is  now !  You  have  only  to  read  that  ter- 
rible report  to  see  what  a  country  the  Turk  has 
made  of  the  Garden  of  Eden.  This  land,  the 
cradle  of  civilisation,  once  the  granary  of  civili- 
sation, the  shrine  and  the  temple  of  civilisation, 
is  a  wilderness  under  the  rule  of  the  Turk. 

What  will  happen  to  Mesopotamia  must  be  left 
to  the  Peace  Congress  when  it  meets,  but  there  is 
one  thing  that  will  never  happen  to  it — it  will 
never  be  restored  to  the  blasting  tyranny  of  the 
Turk.  At  best  he  was  the  trustee  of  this  far- 
famed  land  on  behalf  of  civilisation.  Ah !  What 
a  trustee !  He  has  been  false  to  his  trust  and  the 
trusteeship  must  be  given  over  to  more  com- 
petent and  more  equitable  hands,  chosen  by  the 
Congress  which  will  settle  the  atfairs  of  the  world. 
That  same  observation  applies  to  Armenia,  a  land 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR      157 

soaked  with  the  blood  of  innocents  massacred  by 
the  people  who  were  bound  to  protect  them. 


The  German  Colonies. 

As  to  the  German  colonics,  that  is  a  matter 
which  must  be  settled  by  the  great  international 
Peace  Congress.  Let  me  point  out  that  our  critics 
talk  as  if  we  had  annexed  lands  peopled  by  Ger- 
mans, as  if  we  had  subjected  the  Teutonic  people 
to  British  rule.  When  you  come  to  settle  who 
shall  be  the  future  trustees  of  these  uncivilised 
lands,  you  must  take  into  account  the  sentiments 
of  the  people  themselves,  what  confidence  has 
been  inspired  in  their  untutored  minds  by  the 
German  rule  of  which  they  have  had  an  experi- 
ence, whether  they  are  anxious  to  secure  the  re- 
turn of  their  former  masters,  or  whether  they 
would  rather  trust  their  destinies  to  other  and 
juster  and — ^may  I  confidently  say — gentler  hands 
than  those  who  have  had  the  governing  of  them 
up  to  the  present  time.  The  wishes,  the  desires, 
and  the  interests  of  the  people  of  these  countries 
themselves  must  be  the  dominant  factor  in  settling 
their  future  government.  That  is  the  principle 
upon  which  we  are  proceeding. 

Chiarantees  of  Peace. 

Is  there  any  trace  of  any  desire  on  the  part  of 
Germany,  any  indication  of  a  desire  on  the  part 
of  Germany,  to  settle  upon  these  essential  terms? 


158  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Where  are  the  negotiations?  In  a  speech  which 
appeared  in  the  Glasgow  papers  this  morning, 
delivered,  I  think  yesterday,  by  the  Austrian 
Premier,  he  emphatically  repudiated  the  princi- 
ple that  nations  must  have  their  destinies  con- 
trolled according  to  their  desires.  Where  is  the 
common  ground  for  peace  there?  Unless  both 
principles  are  accepted,  not  merely  will  there  be 
no  peace,  but  if  you  had  a  peace  there  would  be 
no  guarantee  of  its  continuance. 

What  will  have  to  be  guaranteed,  first  of  all,  by 
the  conditions  of  peace?  That  they  should  be 
framed  upon  so  equitable  a  basis  that  nations 
■will  not  wish  to  disturb  them.  They  must  be 
guaranteed  by  the  destruction  of  the  Prussian 
military  power;  by  the  certainty  that  the  con- 
fidence of  the  German  people  shall  be  in  the  equity 
of  their  cause  and  not  in  the  might  of  their  arms. 
May  I  say  that  a  better  guarantee  than  either 
would  have  been  the  democratisation  of  the  Ger- 
man Government? 

One  of  the  outstanding  features  of  the  war  has 
been  the  reluctance  with  which  democratic 
countries  entered  it,  and  the  historian  will  con- 
clude, in  reviemng  the  facts  of  these  last  few 
years,  that  if  all  the  belligerent  nations  had  been 
ruled  by  Governments  directly  responsible  to  their 
peoples  there  would  have  been  no  war.  And  if  the 
German  Government's  Constitution  becomes  as 
democratic  as  either  the  French,  Italian,  Ameri- 
can, Eussian,  or  British  Governments'  Consti- 
tutions are,  that  in  itself  would  constitute  the 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR     159 

best  guarantee  for  peace  in  Europe  and  the  world 
that  we  can  hope  to  secure. 

No  one  wishes  to  dictate  to  the  German  people 
the  form  of  government  under  which  they  choose 
to  live.  That  is  a  matter  entirely  for  themselves; 
but  it  is  right  we  should  say  that  we  could  enter 
into  negotiations  with  a  free  Government  in  Ger- 
many with  a  different  attitude  of  mind,  a  different 
temper,  a  different  spirit,  with  less  suspicion,  with 
more  confidence,  than  we  could  with  a  Govern- 
ment whom  we  Imow  to  be  dominated  by  the  ag- 
gressive and  arrogant  spirit  of  Prussian  mili- 
tarism ;  and  the  Allied  Governments  would,  in  my 
judgment,  be  acting  wisely  if  they  drew  that  dis- 
tinction in  their  general  attitude  to  a  discussion 
of  the  terms  of  peace.  The  fatal  error  committed 
by  Prussia  in  1870 — the  error  which  undoubtedly 
proves  her  bad  faith  at  that  time — was  that  when 
she  entered  the  war  she  was  fighting  against  a 
restless  military  Empire  dominated  largely  by 
military  ideals  with  military  traditions  behind 
them.  When  that  Empire  fell  it  would  have  been 
wisdom  on  the  part  of  Germany  to  recognise  the 
change  immediately.  Democratic  France  was  a 
more  sure  guarantee  for  the  peace  of  Germany 
than  the  fortress  of  Metz  or  the  walled  ramparts 
of  Strassburg.  If  Prussia  had  taken  that  view 
European  history  would  have  taken  a  different 
course.  It  would  have  acted  on  the  generous 
spirit  of  the  great  people  who  dwell  in  France ;  it 
would  have  reacted  on  the  spirit  and  policy  of 
Germany  herself.    Europe  would  have  reaped  a 


160  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

harvest  of  peace  and  good  will  amongst  men  in- 
stead of  garnering,  as  she  does  now,  a  whirlwind 
of  hate,  rage,  and  human  savagery.  I  trust  that 
the  Allied  Governments  will  take  that  as  an  ele- 
ment in  their  whole  discussion  of  the  terms  and 
prospects  of  peace. 

Fighting  for  Future  Generaiions. 

I  have  one  thing  to  say  in  conclusion.  In  pur- 
suing this  conflict  we  must  think  not  merely  of  the 
present  but  of  the  future  of  the  world.  We  are 
settling  questions  which  will  affect  the  lives  of 
people,  not  merely  in  this  generation  but  for  count- 
less generations  to  come.  In  France  last  year  I 
went  along  the  French  front  and  I  met  one  of  the 
finest  generals  in  the  French  Army,  General 
Gouraud,  and  he  said :  ''One  of  my  soldiers  a  few 
days  ago  did  one  of  the  most  gallant  and  daring 
things  any  soldier  ever  did.  He  was  reckless,  but 
he  managed  to  come  back  alive,  and  someone  said 
to  him,  'Why  did  you  do  that?  You  have  four 
children  and  you  might  have  left  it  to  one  of  the 
young  fellows  in  the  army.  What  would  have 
happened  to  your  children*?'  And  his  answer  was, 
*lt  was  for  them  I  did  it.'  " 

''Hallowed  Causes.'' 

This  war  involves  issues  upon  which  will  de- 
pend the  lives  of  our  children  and  our  children's 
children.     Sometimes   in   the   course   of   human 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR     161 

events  great  challenges  are  hurled  from  the  un- 
known amongst  the  sons  and  daughters  of  men. 
Upon  the  answer  which  is  given  to  these  chal- 
lenges, and  upon  the  heroism  with  which  the 
answer  is  sustained,  depends  the  question 
whether  the  world  would  be  better  or  whether 
the  world  be  worse  for  ages  to  come.  These  chal- 
lenges end  in  terrible  conflicts  which  bring 
wretchedness,  misery,  bloodshed,  martyrdom  in 
all  its  myriad  forms  to  the  world,  and  if  you  look 
at  the  pages  of  history  these  conflicts  stand  out 
like  great  mountain  ranges  such  as  you  have  in 
Scotland — scenes  of  destruction,  of  vast  conflicts, 
scarred  by  the  volcanoes  w^hich  threw  them  up, 
but  drawing  blessings  from  the  heavens,  they  ferti- 
lise the  valleys  and  the  plains  perennially  far 
beyond  the  horizon  of  the  highest  peaks. 

You  had  such  a  conflict  in  Scotland  in  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries,  a  great  fight  for 
the  right  of  men  to  worship  God  according  to  their 
consciences.  The  Scottish  Covenanters  might 
have  given  this  answer  to  the  challenge:  they 
might  have  said,  *'Let  there  be  peace  in  our  time, 
0  Lord."  They  might  have  said,  *'Why  should 
we  suffer  for  privileges  that  even  our  fathers 
never  enjoyed?  If  w^e  win  we  may  never  live  to 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  it,  but  we  have  got  to  face  priva- 
tions, unspeakable  torture,  the  destruction  of  our 
homes,  the  scattering  of  our  families,  and  name- 
less death.  Let  there  be  peace."  Scotland  would 
have  been  a  thing  of  no  account  among  the  nations. 
Its  hills  would  have  bowed  their  heads  in  shame 


162  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

for  the  people  they  sheltered.  But  the  answer  of 
the  old  Scottish  Covenanter,  the  old,  dying  Cove- 
nanter Cargill,  rings  down  the  ages  even  to  us  at 
this  fateful  hour.  "Satisfy  your  conscience  and 
go  forward."  That  was  the  answer.  That  conflict 
was  fought  in  the  valleys  of  Scotland  and  the  rich 
plains  and  market-places  of  England,  where 
candles  were  lighted  which  will  never  be  put  out; 
and  on  the  plains,  too,  of  Bohemia,  and  on  the 
fields  and  in  the  walled  cities  of  Germany,  there 
Europe  suffered  unendurable  agonies  and  mis- 
eries; but  at  the  end  of  it  humanity  took  a  great 
leap  forward  towards  the  dawn. 

Then  came  the  conflict  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  great  fight  for  the  right  of  men,  as  men,  and 
Europe  again  was  drenched  with  blood,  but  at  the 
end  of  it  the  peasantry  were  free  and  democracy 
became  a  reality. 

Now  we  are  faced  with  the  greatest  and  the 
grimmest  struggle  of  all.  Liberty,  Equality, 
Fraternity,  not  amongst  men,  but  amongst  na- 
tions— great  and  small,  powerful  and  weak,  ex- 
alted and  humble,  Germany  and  Belgium,  Aus- 
tria and  Serbia — equality,  fraternity,  amongst 
peoples  as  well  as  amongst  men — that  is  the  chal- 
lenge which  has  been  thrown  to  us.  Europe  is 
again  drenched  with  the  blood  of  its  bravest  and 
best.  But,  do  not  forget,  these  are  the  great  suc- 
cessions of  hallowed  causes;  they  are  the  Sta- 
tions of  the  Cross  on  the  road  to  the  emancipa- 
tion of  mankind.  Let  us  endure  as  our  fathers 
did.    Every  birth  is  an  agony,  and  the  new  world 


CAUSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WAR      163 

is  born  out  of  the  agony  of  the  old  world.  My  ap- 
peal to  the  people  of  this  country,  and,  if  my  ap- 
peal can  reach  beyond  it,  is  this,  that  we  should 
continue  to  fight  for  the  great  goal  of  interna- 
tional right  and  international  justice,  so  that 
never  again  shall  brute  force  sit  on  the  throne  of 
justice,  nor  barbaric  strength  wield  the  sceptre  of 
right. 


"VICTORY  WILL  COME." 

EXTRACT  FROM  A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  DUNDEE,  ON  BEING 
PRESENTED  WITH  THE  FREEDOM  OP  THAT  CITY,  JUNE  30tH, 

1917. 

I  KNOW  the  struggle  is  a  prolonged  one;  I  al- 
ways knew  it  would  be.  I  have  always  urged 
plans  on  the  assumption  that  it  was  going  to  be 
a  long  one.  The  evil  was  a  great  one  and  you  don't 
root  great  evils  out  of  the  earth  without  great 
struggles.  All  the  same,  with  a  continuous,  per- 
sistent, unflinching,  unfaltering  will  we  shall  win. 
There  are  occasional  discouragements,  there  are 
occasional  disappointments.  So  there  are  in  every 
great  struggle;  the  end  seems  to  be  postponed.  I 
remember  in  the  early  days  of  April  attending  a 
conference  on  the  Italian  frontier.  I  passed 
through  lands  that  ought  to  have  been  green  with 
springtime.  They  were  bleak  and  grey ;  there  was 
not  a  bud  to  be  seen ;  the  land  was  still  locked  in 
the  cells  of  winter.  All  was  cold  and  forbidding, 
and  I  entered  the  warm  valleys  of  Savoy  and  they 
were  blind  with  a  driving  blizzard,  and  I  said, 
' '  Will  the  winter  ever  cease  ?  Will  the  spring  ever 
come !  Shall  we  ever  see  the  summer  sun  and  the 
harvest  again?"  And  for  the  moment  I  had  a 
thrill  of  horror  that  some  visitation  had  come 

164 


"VICTORY  WILL  COME"  165 

upon  the  earth.  I  came  back  in  a  fortnight  and 
the  sun  was  shining,  the  trees  were  in  bud.  The 
earth  of  France  had  burst  the  shackles  of  winter ; 
the  almond  was  in  bloom ;  the  glorious  splendour 
of  spring  was  upon  the  earth,  and  I  knew  France 
was  free.  And  I  tell  you  now,  although  the  win- 
ter tarries  the  springtime  of  victory  will  come. 


BELGIUM. 

EXTRACTS    FROM    A    SPEECH    DELIVERED    AT    THE    QUEEN 'S 

HALL    TO    COMMEMORATE    THE    ANNIVERSARY    OF    BELGIAN 

INDEPENDENCE,  JULY  21ST,   1917, 

"We  are  here  to-day  on  the  anniversary  of  the  in- 
dependence of  the  people  who  have  rendered  such 
unforgettable  services  to  the  independence  of 
Europe.  The  world  will  never  forget  the  services 
rendered  by  Belgium  to  international  right,  for 
the  great  battles  of  Europe  during  recent  centuries 
have  been  fought  on  her  soil.  Belgium  is  the  gate- 
way between  the  Central  Powers  and  the  West, 
and  modern  statesmen  had  devised  the  plan — if 
I  may  use  the  phrase — of  putting  Belgium  out  of 
bounds  and  thus  preserving  the  liberties  of  Europe 
by  making  it  impossible  either  for  an  aggressive 
France  to  destroy  Germany  or  an  aggressive  Ger- 
many to  destroy  France.  The  Treaty  of  the  Neu- 
trality of  Belgium  was  one  of  the  pediments  of 
the  public  law  of  Europe.  Belgium  was  the  gate- 
keeper of  European  liberty — the  highest,  the  most 
onerous,  the  most  dangerous  trust  ever  imposed 
on  a  people.  Faithfully,  loyally,  have  the  Belgian 
people  discharged  their  trust  to  Europe.  If  I 
may  quote  from  an  historic  document — a  document 
which  is  part  of  the  history  of  the  world,  the  reply 

166 


BELGIUM  167 

of  the  Belgian  Government  to  the  German  Ulti- 
matum— there  is  nothing  that  more  clearly  states, 
not  merely  the  duty  of  Belgium  to  Europe,  but  the 
way  in  which  you  Belgians  have  discharged  that 
duty  :— 

''The  Belgian  Government,  if  they  were  to  ac- 
cept the  proposals  submitted  to  them,  would  sacri- 
fice the  honour  of  the  nation  and  betray  their 
duty  towards  Europe."  A  great  answer,  greatly 
kept. 

What  were  the  German  proposals  1  They  were 
the  proposals  of  the  assassin  who  approached  a 
man  and  said,  "Open  unto  me  your  gates,  so  that 
I  may  take  your  peaceful  neighbour  at  a  disad- 
vantage." "What  manner  of  mind  must  men  pos- 
sess when  they  suggest  such  an  infamy  to  any- 
body? Belgium,  as  an  honourable  people,  re- 
jected it  with  disdain,  and  great  will  be  their 
status  for  everaiore  in  the  story  of  the  world. 

The  Agony  of  Belgium. 

But  Belgium  has  suffered  for  performing  her 
high  duty  and  keeping  her  high  trust.  She  has 
suffered  the  unbridled  savagery  of  the  conqueror, 
the  men  who  are  committing  outrages  in  France 
and  in  Belgium  that  Attila  had  not  the  fine  cruelty 
to  devise;  the  pirates  of  the  high  seas  who  are 
sinking  unarmed  merchant  vessels  and  passenger 
ships  and  drowning  women  and  children.  That 
fury  has  been  concentrated  for  three  years  upon 
Belgium.    Three  years  of  oppression,  of  humilia- 


168  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

tion,  of  servitude,  of  anxiety,  of  agony.  But  at 
the  end  Belgium  will  be  greater  than  she  ever 
was.  Her  sacrifice  will  be  her  discipline ;  her  for- 
titude will  be  her  redemption.  In  the  words  of 
your  heroic  King,  ''A  country  defending  itself  is 
respected  by  all.  That  country  will  not  perish." 
Three  years — even  of  agony — are  not  long  in 
the  life  of  a  nation,  and  the  deliverance  of  Belgium 
is  assuredly  coming,  and  when  it  comes  that  de- 
liverance must  be  complete.  France  owes  it, 
Britain  owes  it,  Europe  owes  it,  the  civilisation  of 
the  world  owes  it  to  Belgium  that  her  deliverance 
shall  be  complete. 

The  German  Chancellor's  Speech. 

What  have  we  in  the  way?  There  is  a  new 
Chancellor.  The  Junker  has  thrown  the  old 
Chancellor  into  the  waste-paper  basket  with  his 
scrap  of  paper  and  they  are  lying  there  side  by 
side.  You  will  not  have  to  wait  long  before 
Junkerdom  will  follow.  What  hope  is  there  in 
his  speech  of  peace — I  mean  an  honourable  peace, 
which  is  the  only  possible  peace?  It  is  a  dexter- 
ous speech,  a  facing-all-ways  speech.  There  are 
phrases  for  those  who  earnestly  desire  peace — 
many.  But  there  are  phrases  which  the  military 
powers  of  Germany  will  understand — phrases 
about  making  the  frontiers  of  Germany  secure. 
That  is  the  phrase  which  annexed  Alsace-Lor- 
raine; that  is  the  phrase  which  has  drenched 
Europe  with  blood  from  1914;  that  is  the  phrase 


BELGIUM  169 

which,  if  they  dare,  will  annex  Belgium ;  and  that 
is  the  phrase  which  will  once  more  precipitate 
Europe  into  a  welter  of  blood  within  a  generation 
unless  that  phrase  is  wiped  out  of  the  statesman- 
ship of  Europe. 

There  are  phrases  for  men  of  democratic  mind 
in  that  speech — many.  He  was  calling  men  from 
the  Reichstag  to  co-operate  with  the  Government; 
they  were  even  to  get  office,  men  of  all  parties  and 
men  of  democratic  sentiment.  But  there  were 
phrases  to  satisfy  the  Junkers — to  other  men 
nothing.  There  was  to  be  no  parting  mth  Im- 
perialistic rights.  All!  They  will  call  men  from 
the  Reichstag  to  office,  but  they  will  be  not  Min- 
isters, but  clerks.  It  is  the  speech  of  a  man  wait- 
ing on  the  militarj^  situation,  and  let  the  Allies — 
Russia,  Britain,  France,  Italy,  all  of  them — bear 
that  in  mind.  It  is  a  speech  that  can  be  made  bet- 
ter by  improving  the  military  situation.  If  the 
Germans  win  in  the  West,  if  they  destroy  the  Rus- 
sian army  in  the  East,  if  their  friends  the  Turks 
drive  Britain  out  of  Mesopotamia,  if  the  U-boats 
sink  more  merchant  ships,  then  that  speech,  be- 
lieve me,  means  annexation  all  round  and  military 
autocracy  more  firmly  established  than  ever.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  should  the  German  army  be 
driven  back  in  the  West,  be  beaten  in  the  East, 
and  should  their  friends  the  Turks  fail  in  Bagh- 
dad, and  the  submarines  be  a  failure  on  the  high 
seas,  that  speech  is  all  right.  We  must  all  help 
to  make  that  a  good  speech.  There  are  possibil- 
ities in  it  of  excellence.    Let  us  help  Dr.  Michaelis ; 


170  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

let  us  give  our  assistance  to  the  new  Chancellor  to 
make  his  first  speech  a  real  success.  But  for  the 
moment  it  means  that  the  military  party  have 
won. 

i  want  to  repeat  in  another  form  a  statement 
which  I  made  before.  What  manner  of  Govern- 
ment they  choose  to  rule  over  them  is  entirely  the 
business  of  the  German  people  themselves;  but 
what  manner  of  Government  we  can  trust  to  make 
peace  with  is  our  business.  Democracy  is  in  itself 
a  guarantee  of  peace,  and  if  you  cannot  get  it  in 
Germany,  then  we  must  secure  other  guarantees 
as  a  substitute.  The  German  Chancellor's  speech 
shows,  in  my  judgment,  that  those  who  are  in 
charge  of  affairs  in  Germany  have  for  the  mo- 
ment elected  for  war. 

Belgium  Must  Be  Restored. 

There  is  no  hope  for  Belgium  in  that  speech. 
It  is  not  even  mentioned.  The  phraseology  is  full 
of  menace  to  Belgium.  All  that  about  making 
their  frontiers  secure — which  took  Metz  and 
Strassburg  away,  and  will  take  Liege  and  the  con- 
trol over  Antwerp  again — that  is  not  a  phrase  of 
good  omen  for  Belgium.  All  that  about  the  neces- 
sity of  seeing  that  the  economic  interests  of  Ger- 
many are  secure  means  that,  even  if  they  restore 
Belgium,  their  restoration  will  be  a  sham.  The 
determination  of  the  Allies  is  this,  that  Belgium 
must  be  restored  as  a  free  and  an  independent 
people.    Belgium  must  be  a  people  and  not  a  Pro- 


BELGIUM  171 

tectorate.  We  must  not  have  a  Belgian  scabbard 
for  the  Prussian  sword.  The  sceptre  must  be 
Belgian,  the  sword  must  be  Belgian,  the  scab- 
bard must  be  Belgian,  the  soul  must  be  Belgian. 

I  read  that  speech,  as  it  was  my  duty  to  read 
it,  once,  twice,  thrice,  to  seek  anything  in  it  which 
would  give  hope  for  an  end  of  this  bloodshed, 
and  I  see  a  sham  independence  for  Belgium,  a 
sham  democracy  for  Germany,  a  sham  peace  for 
Europe ;  and  I  say  Europe  has  not  sacrificed  mil- 
lions of  her  gallant  sons  to  set  up  on  soil  con- 
secrated by  their  blood  a  mere  sanctuary  for 
shams. 


Democracy  versus  Auiocracy. 

The  issues  are  becoming  clearer  day  by  day. 
Belgium,  with  a  sure  instinct,  understood  them 
the  first  hour  of  the  contest.  You  made  no  mis- 
take as  to  what  this  great  conflict  meant  for  you, 
for  France,  for  Britain,  for  Europe,  for  the  world, 
for  humanity,  for  all  generations.  It  is  to  your 
glory  that  you  have  jumped  to  the  right  conclu- 
sion. A  great  German  newspaper  said  the  other 
day  that  the  Germans  were  fighting  for  the  free- 
dom and  independence  of  the  Fatherland.  It  was 
never  true.  It  is  less  true  to-day  than  it  ever  was. 
The  freer  Germany  is,  the  more  independent  Ger- 
many is,  the  better  we  like  it.  Those  who  are  the 
enemies  of  the  freedom  and  independence  of  Ger- 


172  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

many  are  her  own  rulers  and  not  the  Allied 
Powers. 

We  prefer  a  free  Germany.  We  can  make  peace 
with  a  free  Germany.  It  is  with  a  Germany  dom- 
inated by  autocracy  that  we  cannot  make  any 
terms  of  peace.  When  they  were  fighting  perhaps 
a  corrupt  and  narrow  autocracy  in  the  East  they 
had  some  specious  pretext  for  appeals  of  that 
kind  to  their  own  people.  They  have  none  now. 
For  what  has  happened?  Russia  has  not  merely 
become  a  great  democracy  which  is  not  fighting 
to  extend  its  own  territories ;  it  has  actually  de- 
clared that  it  is  prepared  to  concede  independence 
to  a  nation  which  was  once  under  the  Russian  flag. 
Since  then  the  last  shadow  of  a  pretext  on  the 
part  of  Germany  that  she  is  fighting  for  freedom 
and  independence  has  completely  vanished,  even 
if  she  ever  had  one. 

It  has  now  become  a  struggle  between  two 
definite  groups  :  one  a  democratic  group — a  group 
of  democratic,  free  nations;  another  a  group  of 
nations  governed  by  militaiy  autocracy — Ger- 
many, Austria,  Turkey,  and  King  Ferdinand  of 
Bulgaria — fit  associates.    That  is  the  grouping. 


In  the  great  coming  struggles  in  the  East  and  in 
the  West,  every  German  soldier  must  know  in  his 
heart  that  if  he  falls  he  will  be  dying  for  mili- 
tary autocracy  in  fighting  against  the  federation 
of  free  peoples.  On  the  other  hand,  every  Bel- 
gian soldier,  every  French  soldier,  every  Russian 


BELGIUM  173 

soldier  knows  that  he  is  risking  his  life  for  the 
freedom  and  independence  of  his  native  land. 
Every  British,  every  iVmeriean,  every  Portuguese 
soldier  knows  that  he  will  be  fighting  side  by  side 
with  the  others  for  international  right  and  justice 
throughout  the  world ;  and  it  is  that  growing  con- 
viction more  even  than  the  knowledge  of  vast  un- 
exhausted resources  which  gives  them  all  heart — 
it  gives  us  heart — to  go  on  fighting  to  the  end, 
knowing  full  well  that  the  future  of  mankind  is 
our  trust  to  maintain  and  to  defend. 


SERBIA. 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  THE  SERBIAN  LUNCH  ( SAVOY  HOTEL), 

AUGUST  8th,  1917. 

I  FELT  that  I  could  not  let  this  opportunity  pass 
without  coming  here  to  say  that  my  heart  is  with 
Serbia,  and  to  pay  a  personal  tribute  of  deep  re- 
spect to  the  venerable  and  distinguished  Serbian 
Prime  Minister.  I  have  heard  of  and  esteemed 
him  for  years  as  one  of  the  wisest,  most  sage,  and 
most  patriotic  figures  in  the  East.  Serbia  owes  a 
good  deal  to  him.  I  think  Europe  owes  a  good  deal 
to  him.  It  was  through  his  action — and  he  is  far 
too  wise  a  man  not  to  have  known  that  his  action 
involved  suffering  for  himself  and  his  country — 
that  the  great  challenge  was  accepted  by  civilisa- 
tion to  the  barbarism  of  Prussia.  It  is  not  for 
naught  that  two  of  the  greatest  statesmen  in 
Europe  at  the  present  moment  have  been  pro- 
duced by  two  comparatively  small  nations  in  the 
East — M.  Pasiteh  and  M.  Venizelos — to  whose  far- 
seeing  patriotism  we  owe  so  much  at  the  present 
moment.  In  fact,  we  owe  far  more  than  it  is  pos- 
sible for  us  to  reveal  as  to  the  prospects  of  the 
future.  M.  Venizelos 's  steadfastness,  his  cour- 
age, his  insight,  have  kept  the  soul  of  Greece  alive 
under  most  trying  conditions.    But  we  are  here 

174 


SERBIA  175 

specially  to  do  honour  to  the  leader  of  the  small 
nation  which  has  passed  through  such  trying  con- 
ditions during  the  last  three  years. 

*'Singing  of  Defeat.'* 

I  am  a  believer  in  little  nations.  I  have  the 
honour  to  belong  to  one  myself.  There  is  one  thing 
about  the  Serbian  nation  that  always  touches  me 
as  a  "Welshman.  I  believe  in  a  nation  that  can 
sing  about  its  defeats.  The  great  event  in  the 
story  of  Serbia  is  not  a  triumph,  not  a  victory, 
but  r.  great  defeat  that  submerged  it  in  bar- 
barism. Yet  Serbia  sang  of  that  right  through 
the  centuries  until  the  day  of  restoration  came. 
If  I  may  say  so,  that  is  almost  what  has  hap- 
pened in  the  case  of  my  little  people — our  greatest 
song  is  the  song  that  drove  us  into  the  mountains, 
but  we  always  sang  it  with  hope,  and  we  are  still 
alive.  So  the  people  of  Serbia  sang  in  the  moun- 
tains of  the  battle  of  Kossovo,  with  the  refrain 
of  sadness,  and  a  certain  lilt  of  hope  at  the  end 
of  it,  until  the  day  of  triumph  came. 

Serhia  to  he  Restored. 

A  nation  that  can  sing  about  its  defeat  is  a  na- 
tion which  is  immortal,  and  that  is  w^hy  Serbia  is 
immortal.  At  present  she  is  submerged  in  a  del- 
uge of  barbarism,  but  she  is  not  destroyed.  Like 
a  fresco,  a  beautiful  picture  covered  with  the  foul- 
ness of  centuries,  something  comes  to  cleanse  it, 


176  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

and  it  is  as  fresh  and  bright  as  when  it  came  from 
the  hand  of  the  master.  That  is  Serbia — a  great 
picture  painted  in  the  mountains  of  the  East  by 
the  hand  of  the  Great  Master,  limned  and  coloured 
with  all  the  foulness  of  Turkish  barbarism.  Does 
anyone  imagine  that  a  race  which  survives  the 
centuries  without  degradation  is  going  to  die  by 
two  or  three  years  of  defeat?  That  is  why  I  be- 
lieve in  Serbia.  She  has  the  necessary  grit,  en- 
durance, hope,  and  faith  that  will  make  her  live. 
I  fear  not  what  is  going  to  happen  to  Serbia. 
What  I  ventured  to  say  about  Belgium,  speaking 
on  behalf  of  the  British  Government,  I  say  here 
again,  speaking  on  behalf  of  the  same  Govern- 
ment and  of  the  people  of  Serbia — the  first  con- 
dition of  peace  is  restoration,  complete  and  with- 
out reservation.  I  came  here  to  make  no  speech. 
I  came  to  say  that  however  long  this  war  may 
last — and  it  is  in  the  hands  of  God — British  hon- 
our is  involved  in  seeing  that  Serbian  independ- 
ence is  fully  restored. 

It  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  honour ;  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  the  security  of  civilisation.  Just  as  Belgium 
is  the  warder  of  the  gateway  of  the  West,  so 
Serbia  is  the  guardian  of  the  gateway  of  the  East, 
and  faithfully  has  she  stood  to  her  trust.  She  has 
done  it  to  her  detriment.  She  has  suffered.  She 
has  had  two,  three  glorious  campaigns.  With  her 
own  right  hand  she  defeated  the  legions  of  Aus- 
tria, and  had  it  not  been  for  the  overwhelming 
masses  of  the  whole  of  the  Central  Powers  that 
attacked  her  she  would  still  have  kept  the  gate. 


SERBIA  177 

But  her  gallant  troops  in  the  hour  of  defeat  have 
never  been  broken-hearted.  On  the  contrary,  the 
remnants  of  her  army  have  rallied  together.  Men 
came  from  the  East  and  the  West  with  Serbian 
blood  in  their  veins,  and  their  hearts  throbbing 
with  the  traditions  of  their  people.  They  are  still 
at  that  door  watching,  and  one  day  they  will  break 
through  and  recapture  their  independence.  Once 
more  we  here  extend  the  hand  of  fellowship  to 
Serbia,  and  say,  *'Come  weal,  come  woe,  we  are 
not  merely  Allies,  but  friends  and  partners,  and 
we  will  go  through  the  world  together. ' ' 


THE  PAN-GERMAN  DREAM. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  QUEEN 'S  HALL  ON 
THE    THIRD    ANNIVERSARY    OF    THE    DECLARATION    OF    WAR, 

AUGUST  4th,  1917. 

"Why  We  Are  at  War. 

This  is  tlie  third  anniversary  of  the  greatest 
war  the  world  has  ever  witnessed.  What  are  we 
fighting  for?  To  defeat  the  most  dangerous  con- 
spiracy ever  plotted  against  the  liberty  of  nations, 
carefully,  skilfully,  insidiously,  clandestinely 
planned  in  every  detail  with  ruthless,  cynical  de- 
termination. Those  who  have  read  the  revelations 
which  have  recently  appeared  of  that  meeting  in 
Berlin  a  few  weeks  before  the  war  must  have 
read  with  a  shudder  the  account  of  that  meeting 
of  the  confederates  before  the  firing  of  the  train 
— one  of  the  most  sinister  episodes  in  the  whole 
history  of  brigandage. 

Should  there  be  any  man  in  this  country  who 
wants  to  know  why  we  are  at  war,  let  him  put 
this  question  to  himself.  What  would  have  hap- 
pened to  Europe — what  would  have  happened  to 
the  world — if  we  had  not  gone  into  this  war?  See, 
looking  back  over  the  last  three  years,  what  has 
befallen  Europe  as  our  justification  for  entering 
the  war.  With  the  whole  of  our  might  thrown 
into  the  task — all  our  great  Army  and  Navy — 

178 


THE  PAN-GERMAN  DREAIM  179 

Belgium,  Serbia,  Eumania,  Montenegro,  some  of 
the  fairest  provinces  of  France  anc^  Russia  over- 
ran, devastated,  humiliated,  and  Bulgaria  and 
Turkey  miserable  vassal  States — that  is  what  has 
happened  with  the  w^hole  w^eight  of  the  British 
Empire  thro^vn  in  on  the  other  side.  Can  you  pic- 
ture what  would  have  happened  if  our  vast  Navy 
had  not  been  keeping  the  seas ;  if  we  had  not  been 
there  to  keep  the  ring  and  secure  a  certain  measure 
of  forbearance  and  fair  play ;  if  we  had  not  raised 
a  huge  new  army  to  confront  the  Prussian  legions? 
Russia  would  have  been  swallowed  up.  She  is 
demoralised  for  the  moment,  and  disintegration 
has  rendered  her  brave  army  impotent  for  the 
present,  but  it  would  have  happened  sooner. 
France  would  have  fought  with  all  the  traditional 
valour  of  her  race,  a  valour  which  in  history  and 
in  the  despatches  of  to-day  has  thrilled  the  world 
with  wonder;  but  with  succour  and  supplies  by  sea 
cut  off  and  left  isolated  on  land,  even  her  gallant 
armies  might  have  been  overwhelmed.  What  kind 
of  peace  would  you  have  had  in  Europe  then?  It 
would  not  have  been  a  peace ;  it  would  have  been  a 
conquest,  a  subjugation  of  Europe ;  Europe  would 
have  been  at  the  mercy  of  one  great  dominating 
Power;  yes,  and  at  the  mercy  of  the  worst  ele- 
ments of  that  Power. 

The  Pan-German  Dream. 

Will  those  people  who  still  have  doubt  as  to 
whether  we  ought  to  have  intervened  three  years 


180  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

ago  reflect  upon  what  kind  of  Europe  there  would 
be  to-day  if  we  had  not  gone  into  the  war?  There 
would  have  been  many  nations ;  there  would  have 
been  one  Great  Power ;  there  would  have  been  two 
navies,  Great  Britain's  and  Germany's  for  a  time 
— for  a  time!  Think  of  the  terms  of  peace.  In- 
demnity might  have  taken  the  form  of  a  demand 
for  surrender  of  navies,  and  Russia,  France, 
Greece,  perhaps  Italy — Europe — ^would  have  been 
at  the  mercy  of  that  great  cruel  Power.  You 
may  say  this  is  a  nightmare.  It  is  not;  it  is  the 
description  of  the  Pan-German  dream. 

What  would  have  happened  in  America?  The 
Monroe  Doctrine  would  have  been  treated  like  any 
other  ''scrap  of  paper."  It  was  a  doctrine  to 
which  Germany  never  subscribed,  though  if  she 
had  appended  her  signature  to  it,  it  would  have 
made  no  difference ;  but  we  know  her  ambitions  in 
South  America.  Not  a  year  after  the  signing  of 
peace  would  have  elapsed  before  she  would  have 
started  to  realise  those  ambitions,  and  America 
would  have  been  helpless.  The  Allied  Powers  felt 
instinctively,  from  the  first  moment,  that  a  great 
peril  to  human  liberty  had  appeared  on  the  hori- 
zon, and  without  delay,  without  hesitation,  they 
accepted  the  challenge.  America  realised  the 
peril  later,  and  therefore  is  with  us  to-day.  This 
peril  we  have  for  three  years  been  trying  to  avert, 
and  not  without  success. 

Do  not  lo  blinded,  do  not  be  discouraged,  by 
any  unfortunate  episodes;  realise  the  gre?t  cen- 
tral fact  that  we  have  checked  the  ambition  of 


THE  PAN-GERMAN  DREAM  181 

Germany.  The  nations  of  the  world  have  been 
painfully  climbing  the  steep  that  leads  to  national 
independence  and  self-respect.  Great  Britain  and 
France  reached  the  plateau  long  ago.  Other  na- 
tions came  later.  It  was  towards  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century  that  Italy  achieved  the  posi- 
tion of  an  independent  State.  And  then  comes  a 
Great  Power  with  brute  force  to  thrust  the  na- 
tions back,  crushed  and  bleeding,  into  the  old 
dark  chasm  of  servitude.  This  is  why  we  have 
been  fighting  for  the  last  three  years. 

''The  Kaiser's  Stutter." 

There  are  people  who  say :  * '  But  the  peril  is  now 
past.  Why,  therefore,  do  you  not  make  peace? 
The  Kaiser  now  talks  a  different  language.  You 
never  hear  now  those  resounding  phrases  about 
the  world-power  of  Germany.  He  talks  modestly 
about  defending  German  soil."  Who  ever  wanted 
to  invade  German  soil?  Did  Britain  with  her 
"contemptible  little  Army"  want  to  invade  Ger- 
many? Was  Russia,  who  had  not  a  railway  sys- 
tem which  was  adequate  to  keeping  an  army  to 
defend  her  own  frontier,  preparing  for  invasion? 
Was  France,  who  was  obviously  unprepared  to 
protect  even  her  own  frontiers,  preparing  for  in- 
vasion? Or  was  it  Belgium  that  was  going  to  in- 
vade Germany?  Was  the  Serbian  army  going 
to  March  to  Berlin?  No;  the  Kaiser  must  know 
that  it  is  not  true.  That  is  not  why  he  went  to 
war.    That  is  not  why  he  is  at  war  now.    Even  now 


182  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

neither  he  nor  his  new  Chancellor  say  they  will 
be  satisfied  with  German  soil.  They  both  talk 
glibly  of  peace,  but  they  stammer,  they  stutter, 
when  they  come  to  the  word  restoration.  It  has 
not  yet  crossed  their  lips  in  its  entirety.  We  have 
challenged  them.  They  cannot  say  it.  Before  we 
enter  a  peace  conference  they  must  learn  to  utter 
that  word  to  begin  with.  The  gallant  soldiers,  of 
whom  I  am  delighted  to  see  specimens  in  this  meet- 
ing, are  gradually  going  to  cure  the  Kaiser  of  this 
stutter.  So  far  he  has  not  yet  learned  the  alpha- 
bet of  peace.  The  first  letter  in  that  alphabet  is 
restoration.     Then  we  will  talk. 

"No  'Next  Time.'  " 

That  is  not  all.  War  is  a  ghastly  thing,  but  not 
as  grim  as  a  bad  peace.  There  is  an  end  to  the 
most  horrible  war,  but  a  bad  peace  goes  on  and  on 
staggering  from  one  war  to  another.  What  do 
they  mean?  Do  they  mean  peace  when  they  talk? 
The  truth  is — I  have  followed  closely  every  line 
they  have  uttered,  and  I  have  watched  their  pa- 
pers— ^the  Prussian  war  lords  have  not  yet 
abandoned  their  ambitions.  They  are  not  dis- 
cussing that.  They  are  only  discussing  the  post- 
ponement of  the  realisation  of  these  ambitions. 
There  is  a  feeling  among  them — a  genuine  feeling, 
believe  me — that  this  time  the  plot  has  miscarried. 
They  are  perfectly  honest  about  that,  and  they 
blame  this  country  with  its  Fleet  and  its  factories, 
and  they  say,  "Had  it  not  been  for  Britain  all 


THE  PAN-GERMAN  DREAM  183 

would  have  been  well."  Next  time  they  mean  t'^ 
make  sure.  There  must  be  no  "make  sure."  i\. 
man  in  a  very  high  and  powerful  position  in  Ger- 
many has  said  there  will  be  peace  shortly,  but  war 
will  be  resumed  in  ten  years.  That  is  their  idea. 
This  is  the  way  they  talk.  They  say,  * '  Well,  there 
are  many  things  we  ought  to  have  foreseen.  We 
ought  to  have  had  plenty  of  food  stored  in  Ger- 
many. Next  time  we  will  see  to  that.  We  ought  to 
have  had  plenty  of  cotton.  Then,  we  have  made 
a  mistake  about  submarines.  Instead  of  having 
two  or  three  hundred,  we  ought  to  have  had  at 
least  two  or  three  thousand. ' '  Next  time !  There 
must  be  no  "next  time"!  Far  better,  in  spite  of 
all  the  cost,  all  the  sorrow,  and  all  the  tragedy  of 
it — let  us  have  done  with  it !  Do  not  let  us  repeat 
this  horror !  Let  us  be  the  generation  that  man- 
fully, courageously,  resolutely  eliminated  war 
from  among  the  tragedies  of  human  life.  Let  us, 
at  any  rate,  make  victory  so  complete  that  na- 
tional liberty,  whether  for  great  nations  or  for 
small  nations,  can  never  be  challenged.  That  is 
the  ordinary  law.  The  small  man,  the  poor  man, 
has  the  same  protection  as  the  powerful  man.  So 
the  little  nation  must  be  as  well  guarded  and  pro- 
tected as  the  big  nation. 

You  ask, ' '  How  are  we  getting  on  ?  "  Well,  like 
all  roads  that  have  ever  been  constructed,  there 
are  ups  and  downs,  and  no  doubt  the  Russian  col- 
lapse is  rather  a  deep  glen  through  which  we  are 
passing,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  we  have  reached 
its  darkest  level.    But  across  the  valley  I  can  see 


184.  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

the  ascent.  I  will  give  you  my  reason.  Russia 
herself  has  been  taught  by  this  collapse  the  much- 
needed  lesson  that  an  army  without  discipline  is 
a  mere  rabble  where  the  brave  are  sacrificed  to 
protect  cowards.  The  French  Revolution  quickly 
taught  that  lesson,  otherwise  the  Prussians  and 
the  Austrians  would  have  quenched  French  liberty 
in  the  blood  of  its  sons. 


*^Both  Eyes  on  Victory." 

"While  the  Army  is  fighting  so  valiantly  let  the 
nation  behind  it  be  patient,  be  strong,  and,  above 
all,  united.  The  strain  is  great  on  nations  and  on 
individuals,  and  when  men  get  over-strained 
tempers  get  ragged,  and  small  grievances  are  ex- 
aggerated, and  small  misunderstandings  and  mis- 
takes swell  into  mountains.  Long  wars,  like  long 
voyages  and  long  journeys,  are  very  trying  to 
the  temper,  and  wise  men  keep  watch  on  it  and 
make  allowances  for  it.  There  are  some  who 
are  more  concerned  about  ending  the  war  than 
about  winning  it,  and  plans  which  lead  to  victory, 
if  they  prolong  the  conflict,  have  their  disapproval, 
and  the  people  who  are  responsible  for  such  plans 
have  their  condemnation.  Let  us  keep  our  eye 
steadily  on  the  winning  of  the  war.  May  I  say 
let  us  keep  both  eyes  ?  Some  have  a  cast  in  their 
eye,  and  while  one  eye  is  fixed  truly  on  victory, 
the  other  is  wandering  around  to  other  issues  or 
staring  stonily  at  some  pet  or  partisan  project  of 


THE  PAN-GERMAN  DREAM  185 

their  own.  Beware  of  becoming  cross-eyed !  Keep 
both  eyes  on  victory.  Look  neither  to  the  right 
nor  to  the  left.  That  is  the  way  we  shall  win.  If 
anyone  promotes  national  distrust  or  disunion  at 
this  hour  he  is  helping  the  enemy  and  hurting  his 
native  land.  And  it  makes  no  difference  whether 
he  is  for  or  against  the  war.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  hurt  is  deeper  if  he  is  for  the  war,  because 
whatever  the  pure  pacifist  says  is  discounted  and, 
as  far  as  the  war  is  concerned,  discredited. 

Let  there  be  one  thought  in  every  head.  If  you 
sow  distrust,  discontent,  disunion,  in  the  nation 
we  shall  reap  defeat.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
sow  the  seeds  of  patience,  confidence,  and  unity, 
we  shall  gamer  in  victory  and  its  fruits.  The  last 
ridges  of  a  climb  are  always  the  most  trying  to 
the  nerves  and  to  the  heart,  but  the  real  test  of 
great  endurance  and  courage  is  the  last  few  hun- 
dreds or  scores  of  feet  in  a  climb  upwards.  The 
climber  who  turns  back  when  he  is  almost  there 
never  becomes  a  great  mountaineer,  and  the  na- 
tion that  turns  back  and  falters  before  it  reaches 
its  purpose  never  becomes  a  great  people.  You 
have  all  had  experience  in  climbing,  no  doubt — 
perhaps  in  Wales.  Any  mountaineer  can  start; 
any  sort  of  mountaineer  can  go  part  of  the  way; 
and  very  often  the  poorer  the  mountaineer,  the 
greater  is  his  ardour  when  he  does  start;  but 
fatigue  and  danger  wear  out  all  but  the  stoutest 
hearts,  and  even  the  most  stout-hearted  some- 
times fail  when  they  come  to  the  last  slippery 
precipice.     But  if  they  do  turn  back  and  after- 


186  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

wards  look  up  and  see  how  near  they  had  got  to 
the  top,  how  they  curse  the  faint-heartedness 
which  bade  them  give  up  when  they  were  so  near 
the  goal! 

No  one  has  any  idea,  no  one  in  Britain,  France, 
Italy,  or  Russia,  nor  in  Germany,  nor  in  Austria, 
how  near  the  top  we  may  be.  A  mere  crag  may 
hide  it  from  our  view.  And  there  are  accidents. 
Russia  may  have  staggered  for  a  moment,  but  she 
is  still  on  the  rope ;  in  due  time  she  will  be  up  again 
climbing,  strong-limbed  and  firm  of  purpose,  and 
together  we  shall  reach  the  summit  of  our  hopes. 


THE  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  A   SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE   TOWN   HALL 

OF  BIRKENHEAD  ON  BEING  PRESENTED  WITH  THE  FREEDOM 

OP  THAT  CITY,  SEPTEMBER  7TH,  1917. 

There  is  no  use  disguising  the  fact  that  the  news 
from  Russia  is  disappointing.  I  have  always 
believed  in  telling  the  truth  and  the  whole  truth 
to  my  countrymen,  because  I  know  full  well  that 
that  is  the  way  to  get  the  best  out  of  them.  I 
have  always  thought  that  the  Revolution,  when  it 
came,  would  have  the  effect  of  postponing  victory. 
Revolutions  may  be  good  things  or  they  may  be 
bad  things  according  to  circumstances,  but  they  do 
upset  a  country  when  they  come.  There  is  con- 
siderable disorganisation ;  it  inevitably  follows.  I 
did  expect  an  earlier  recovery,  but  what  I  want 
to  say  is  that  we  must  exercise  patience.  The 
Russian  leaders,  who  are  able  and  very  patriotic 
men,  very  loyal  to  the  cause  of  the  Alliance,  know 
quite  well  what  is  at  stake.  If  Russia  were  de- 
feated and  humiliated  under  the  leadership  of  a 
Revolutionary  Government  large  territories  in 
Russia  would  be  overrun,  and  many  of  them  would 
be  torn  for  ever  from  the  side  of  Russia.  The 
Germans  are  already  referring  to  Riga — which 
they  only  captured  a  few  hours  ago — as  the  Ger- 
man town  of  Riga.     The  Russian  leaders,  I  am 

187 


188  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

convinced,  know  that  all  this  Revolution  is  at 
stake,  and  that  the  credit  of  democratic  govern- 
ment in  Russia  and  elsewhere  is  at  stake.  No 
people  will  readily  forgive  a  system  of  government 
which  cannot  defend  their  native  land  against  an 
invader.  It  is  no  mean  part  of  the  glory  of  the 
French  Revolution  that  its  sons,  ill-clad,  half 
starved,  ragged,  and  tattered,  still  hurled  back  the 
armies  of  the  invader,  and  kept  France  free. 
Those  victories  constitute  the  title-deeds  of  the 
French  Revolution.  Had  the  French  Revolution- 
ary leaders  permitted  anarchy  to  paralyse  na- 
tional defence  their  names  would  be  held  to-day 
in  contempt  in  France,  and  the  cause  represented 
by  the  Revolution  would  have  suffered,  for 
Frenchmen  are,  above  all,  patriotic. 

Liberty  Must  Be  Defended. 

But  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  Russians  are 
repairing  the  machine  which  has  broken  down. 
They  are  repairing  that  machine  under  fire.  They 
are  attempting  to  repair  the  mismanagement  of 
centuries  under  the  most  trying  circumstances, 
and  we  must  be  patient.  I  feel  confident  that  in 
the  end  they  will  succeed.  They  know  too  well 
that  if  the  Kaiser's  army  gets  to  Petrograd  it  will 
not  go  there  to  establish  a  reign  of  liberty.  The 
French  revolutionary  leaders  knew  this  when,  at 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  Emperor 
of  Austria  and  the  King  of  Prussia — the  same  au- 
tocratic partnership — invaded  France.    And  they 


THE  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  189 

also  knew  that  it  was  not  enough  to  proclaim 
liberty  in  France.  They  had  to  defend  it.  It  was 
not  enough  to  declare  liberty  in  the  streets  of 
Paris,  they  had  to  defend  it  on  the  Sambre  and  on 
the  Meuse.  It  is  all  very  well  to  worship  at  the 
shrine  of  liberty,  but  you  cannot  defend  it  with 
garlands.  The  Prussian  sword  would  soon  make 
short  work  of  them.  I  am  not  concerned  merely 
as  to  the  effect  upon  victory,  but  because  I  know 
that  a  Kussian  failure  would  do  infinite  harm  to 
the  cause  of  democracy  all  the  world  over.  The 
judgment  would  be  an  unjust  one,  because  it  would 
not  take  into  full  account  all  that  had  preceded. 
If  the  Russian  democracy  has  not  received  that 
training  which  would  enable  it  in  a  few  months 
of  war  to  run  a  great  Empire  with  efficiency 
and  steadiness,  and  which  it  has  taken  other 
countries  generations  and  centuries  to  acquire, 
we  must  not  blame  the  people  but  the  system  that 
deprived  them  of  the  education,  the  training,  the 
opportunity,  the  experience,  and  the  responsibility 
essential  to  enable  any  race  to  govern  itself.  We 
must  make  allowance  for  a  nation,  freed  as  it  were 
by  a  lightning  stroke  from  the  oppression  of  cen- 
turies. It  takes  as  long  for  an  oppressed  people 
to  get  accustomed  to  freedom  as  it  does  for  a  free 
people  to  get  accustomed  to  oppression. 

Russia  Loyal  to  the  Allies. 

One  thing  gives  me  great  encouragement :  Ger- 
man attempts  to  sow  dissension  between  the  Al- 


190  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

lies,  between  the  Allies  in  the  West  and  the  Al- 
lies in  the  East,  have  failed.  Why  did  Germany 
not  invade  Russia  months  ago  1  She  did,  not  with 
armies  but  with  agents.  Battalions  of  them  cover 
the  land.  What  fori  To  sow  distrust,  suspicion, 
hatred  of  the  Allies  of  Russia,  and  if  Germany  is 
to-day  invading  with  her  guns  it  is  because  she 
knows  that  her  other  methods  have  failed.  At  the 
great  Conference  at  Moscow  there  was  no  dis- 
tinction of  parties  in  the  heartiness  with  which 
men  of  all  sections  declared  their  adhesion  to  the 
cause  of  the  Allies  and  the  loyalty  of  Russia  to  its 
treaty  obligations.  The  old  German  attempt  to 
produce  the  impression  in  Russia  that  the  war  was 
due  to  the  machinations  of  England  has  not  gone 
home.  They  know  too  well  that  it  is  a  calumny. 
It  is  a  falsehood  on  the  face  of  it.  The  war  be- 
gan in  the  East  and  not  in  the  West.  Russia  was 
brought  in  because  she  undertook  to  champion  the 
cause  of  Serbia;  France  was  brought  in  because 
Lhe  had  undertaken,  by  solemn  treaty  obligation, 
to  stand  by  Russia  if  attacked;  Belgium  was 
brought  in  because  she  was  on  the  direct  road  to 
France;  Britain  was  brought  in  because  she  had 
given  her  word  to  defend  Belgium.  Russia  was 
first  in  the  fray  and  not  last,  and  the  leaders  of 
Russian  democracy  know  that,  and  that  is  why 
they  have  not  been  moved  from  their  loyalty  to 
the  cause  of  the  Allies  in  spite  of  all  Prussian  sub- 
terfuges, devices,  and  tricks. 

Had  Russia  been  a  democracy  in  1914  she  would 
not  have  allowed  a  small  country  of  men  and 


THE  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  191 

women  of  her  own  kith  and  kin  to  have  been  un- 
scrnpulously  trampled  upon  by  a  confederacy  of 
military  autocracies.  Surely,  they  are  not  less 
likely  than  autocracies  to  defend  the  weak,  and 
anyone  who  contends  that  a  Russian  democracy  in 
1914  would  not  have  defended  Serbia  is  libelling 
the  people  of  Russia. 

However,  the  fact  remains  that  the  machinery 
has  broken  down  for  the  moment  in  Russia.  M. 
Kerensky  and  his  colleagues  have  had  cast  upon 
them  the  terrible  task  of  straightening  the  mis- 
management of  centuries,  and  they  are  doing  so 
under  the  fire  of  the  Prussian  guns.  It  is  a  dif- 
ficult task — a  task  that  would  try  the  mettle  of 
any  man.  I  believe  the  Russian  Ministers  are 
equal  to  it.  So  I  bid  you  so  far  from  despairing 
of  Russia  to  look  forward  with  hope  to  her  re- 
covery and  to  the  great  part  she  will  take  before 
this  war  is  over  in  emancipating  the  world  from 
the  menace  of  Prussian  militarism.  Anything 
this  country  can  do  to  assist — and  when  I  speak 
of  this  country  I  am  certain  I  can  speak  with  equal 
confidence  of  other  countries  in  the  Alliance — 
whatever  any  and  each  of  us  can  do  to  assist  Rus- 
sia to  restore  her  strength  we  shall  only  be  too  de- 
lighted to  do. 


Keep  On! 

For  all  these  reasons  I  bid  you  be  of  stout  heart. 
The    stout   heart    of   Britain   has   won   through 


192  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

greater  difficulties  than  those  which  beset  us  at 
this  hour.  I  have  been  in  the  habit  once  or  twice 
of  telling  my  Welsh  fellow  countrymen  when  there 
was  anything  that  made  them  feel  in  the  least  de- 
pressed to  look  upon  the  phenomena  of  their  hills. 
On  a  clear  day  they  look  as  if  they  were  near. 
You  could  reach  them  in  an  easy  march — ^you  could 
climb  the  highest  of  them  in  an  hour.  That  is 
wrong;  you  could  not.  Then  comes  a  cloudy  day, 
and  the  mists  fall  upon  them,  and  you  say: 
''There  are  no  hills.  They  have  vanished." 
Again,  you  are  wrong.  The  optimist  is  wrong; 
the  hills  are  not  as  near  as  he  thought.  The  pessi- 
mist is  still  more  wrong,  because  they  are  there. 
All  you  have  to  do  is  keep  on,  keep  on.  Falter 
not.  We  have  many  dangerous  marshes  to  cross ; 
we  will  cross  them.  We  have  steep  and  stony 
paths  to  climb;  we  will  climb  them.  Our  foot- 
prints may  be  stained  with  blood,  but  we  will  reach 
the  heights;  and  beyond  them  we  shall  see  the 
rich  valleys  and  plains  of  the  new  world  which 
we  have  sacrificed  so  much  to  attain. 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OP  A  FALSE  IDEAL. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  THE  ALBERT  HALL 
ON  THE  LAUNCHING  OF  THE  NEW  WAR  ECONOMY  CAMPAIGN, 

OCTOBER  22nd,  1917. 

I  AM  not  going  to  predict  when  the  end  of  the 
war  will  come.  No  man  in  his  senses  would  pro- 
long it  one  hour  if  there  were  an  opportunity  for 
a  real  and  a  lasting  peace.  But  it  must  be  a  last- 
ing peace.  It  must  not  be  a  peace  which  is  a  prel- 
ude to  a  new  and  a  more  devastating  war.  As 
you  may  imagine,  I  have  scanned  the  horizon 
anxiously  and  I  cannot  see  any  terms  in  sight 
which  would  lead  to  an  enduring  peace.  I  feel 
that  the  only  terms  which  would  be  possible  now 
would  be  terms  which  would  end  in  an  armed  truce. 
I  will  say  an  arming  truce,  ending  in  an  even  more 
frightful  struggle.  This  war  is  terrible  beyond  all 
wars,  but,  terrible  as  it  is  in  itself,  it  is  still  more 
terrible  in  the  possibilities  which  it  has  revealed 
of  new  horrors  on  land  and  sea  and  in  the  air. 

I  ask  those  who  are  pressing,  should  there  be 
any,  for  a  premature  peace,  to  reflect  for  a  mo- 
ment what  might  happen  if  we  made  an  unsatis- 
factory settlement.  All  the  best  scientific  brains 
in  all  lands,  stimulated  by  national  rivalries,  na- 
tional hatreds,  national  hopes,  would  be  devot- 
ing their  energies  for  ten,  twenty,  thirty  years  to 

193 


194  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

magnifying  the  destructive  power  of  those  hor- 
rible agents  whose  power  has  only  just  been  dis- 
closed to  the  belligerents  within  the  last  few 
months.  We  must  settle  this  once  and  for  all. 
The  power  of  the  air  in  its  initial  stages,  the  in- 
fernal weapons  of  the  deep  basely  developed,  all 
those  chemical  elements  which  have  been  utilised 
for  the  first  time — if  this  is  going  to  be  repeated 
after  thirty  years  of  scientific  work  and  applica- 
tion, believe  me  there  are  men  and  women  in  this 
hall  now  who  may  live  to  see  the  death  of  civilisa- 
tion. It  must  be  the  end  of  conflicts  of  this  kind 
now.  And  that  is  why  it  is  essential  for  the 
future  well-being  of  the  human  race  that  such  a 
decision  should  be  reached  now  in  this  struggle, 
that  brute  force  shall  be  dethroned  for  ever,  so 
that  our  children  may  not  be  condemned  to  hor- 
rors and  terrors  which  even  the  most  vivid  imag- 
ination dare  not  portray. 

The  Potsdann  Shrine. 

That  is  why  we  are  putting  all  our  strength  into 
getting  the  right  issue  in  this  conflict  now.  But  I 
ask  the  question :  Is  such  a  settlement  within  im- 
mediate reach  f  I  have  already  told  you  that  in 
my  judgment,  frankly,  it  is  not.  Germany,  in 
my  judgment,  would  only  make  peace  now  on 
terms  which  would  enable  her  to  benefit  by  the 
war  into  which  she  has  wantonly  plunged  the 
world.  That  would  mean  that  Germany  would 
profit  by  her  own  wicked  venture.     It  would  be 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  A  FALSE  IDEAL    195 

an  encouragement  for  every  domineering  empire 
in  tlie  future  to  repeat  tlie  experiment. 

The  failure  of  Napoleon  taught  France  a  les- 
son she  never  forgot,  and  a  similar  lesson — it  took 
twenty  years  then  and  more ;  it  will  not  take  that 
now — but  a  similar  lesson  must  be  burnt  into  the 
heart  and  memory  of  every  Prussian  before  this 
war  is  done  with.  Amidst  all  discussions  about 
terms  and  concessions  here  and  there  we  must  keep 
our  eyes  steadfastly  on  the  great  purposes  of  the 
war.  It  is  not  a  question  of  territorial  read- 
justment, except  in  so  far  as  that  is  necessary  for 
the  recognition  of  national  right.  It  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  indemnities,  except  in  so  far  as  that  is  es- 
sential in  order  to  compensate  for  wrong  inflicted. 
It  is  pre-eminently  a  question  of  the  destruction 
of  a  false  ideal,  which  has  intimidated  and  en- 
slaved Europe,  or  would  have  done  so  had  it  been 
triumphant.  The  real  enemy  is  the  war  spirit 
fostered  in  Prussia.  It  is  an  ideal  of  a  world  in 
which  force  and  brutality  reign  supreme,  as 
against  a  world,  an  ideal  of  a  world,  peopled  by 
free  democracies,  united  in  an  honourable  league 
of  peace.  That  ideal,  that  war  spirit,  has  its 
shrine  in  Potsdam,  w^here  for  fifty  years  they 
have  been  incessantly  plotting,  planning,  schem- 
ing how  to  invade  this  country  and  to  trample 
down  another.  Russia,  Belgium,  Serbia,  France, 
Great  Britain — all  their  energies,  all  their 
thoughts,  every  ingenuity  has  been  exhausted  in 
devising  machinery;  all  their  energies  absorbed  in 
manufacturing    machinery.      German    industry, 


196  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

German  education,  German  science,  German  poli- 
tics, German  diplomacy,  German  flesh  and  blood, 
for  generations  have  been  devoted  to  the  de- 
struction or  the  enslavement  of  their  neighbours. 
That  has  been  their  dream,  and  it  has  been  our 
nightmare. 

Tvme  on  Our  Side. 

That  is  the  war  spirit  enshrined  in  Potsdam. 
There  will  be  no  peace  in  the  world,  no  liberty, 
until  that  shrine  is  shattered  and  its  priesthood 
dispersed  and  discredited  for  ever.  This  year  I 
had  hoped  that  we  might  have  broken  that  ter- 
rible power.  We  had  all  looked  forward  to  the 
great  converging  movement  which  would  have  ac- 
complished that  purpose.  The  temporary  col- 
lapse of  the  Russian  military  power  has,  I  will  not 
say  disappointed,  but  postponed,  our  hopes.  But 
time  is  on  our  side.  There  was  a  moment  when 
time  was  a  doubtful  and  dangerous  neutral,  rather 
disposed  to  favour  our  foes.  Two  things  have 
changed  his  disposition.  The  first  is  the  advent  of 
America.  To  realise  what  that  means  you  have 
only  to  follow  the  rapid  growth  of  our  own  little 
army  to  the  position  of  one  of  the  most  formid- 
able armies  in  the  field.  America  is  now  starting. 
Its  resources  in  man-power  are  twice  as  consider- 
able as  those  of  the  United  Kingdom.  You  have 
there  about  the  best  fighting  material  in  the  world. 
We  have  good  reason  to  know  that.  For  in- 
genuity, resolution,  bravery,  they  are  indeed  a 
formidable  people,  and  their  mechanical  resources 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  A  FALSE  IDEAL     197 

are  unequalled  in  the  whole  world.  They  have 
come  in,  and  they  are  throwing  the  whole  of  their 
volcanic  energy  into  preparing  for  the  conflict. 
Time  is  on  our  side. 

What  is  the  second  factor?  The  increasing 
failure  of  the  German  submarine  campaign.  You 
can  hardly  realise,  without  going  into  it  thor- 
oughly, how  much  Germany  gambled  on  that. 
They  said:  "In  1917  America  will  not  count.  She 
has  no  army."  "In  1918,"  they  said,  "she  will 
not  have  very  much  of  an  army;  1919  will  never 
arrive."  That  is  how  they  reckon  at  Potsdam. 
Why  did  they  say  that  I  "Because,"  said  Pots- 
dam, "before  1918  arrives  the  shipping  tonnage 
of  the  world  will  be  rusting  at  the  bottom  of  the 
deep."  That  was  their  reckoning.  It  was  wrong. 
There  are  fluctuations,  there  are  ups  and  downs, 
there  are  bad  days  and  goods  days,  bad  weeks 
and  good  weeks,  but  our  monthly  loss  in  tonnage 
in  the  good  and  the  bad  is  not  much  over  one- 
third  of  what  it  was  in  April  last.  I  will  give  you 
another  figure  I  have  never  given  yet.  The  losses 
of  German  submarines  during  this  year — ^not 
quite  ten  months  of  the  year — are  more  than  twice 
what  they  were  in  the  whole  of  last  year. 

Time  is  on  our  side.  Our  shipbuilding  is  in- 
creasing. We  have  laid  down  plans  and  made  ar- 
rangements by  which  we  can  turn  out  next  year 
four  times  what  we  turned  out  last  year.  America 
is  doing  the  same. 


198  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Keep  Together. 

To  win  through  you  must  last  out.  What  must 
we  do  1  Husband  our  resources  to  last  through  the 
trying  interval — and  it  is  very  trying — until  Rus- 
sia recovers  and  America  is  ready.  Save  money, 
save  food,  save  in  energy,  save  in  luxuries,  save 
in  labour,  and  increase  production  in  every  direc- 
tion. Above  all  let  us  cultivate  patience,  endur- 
ance, steadfastness.  Waiting  means  winning.  Let 
us  keep  together.  Beware  of  people  who  try  to 
sow  dissension,  distrust,  suspicion,  disunion.  The 
enemy,  beaten  on  most  of  the  battlefields,  is  organ- 
ising with  deadly  care  and  ingenuity  an  offensive 
behind  the  lines.  I  know  what  I  am  talking  about. 
See  what  has  happened  in  France — they  dis- 
covered it  in  time — and  look  out  for  Boloism  in 
all  its  shapes  and  forms.  It  is  the  latest  and 
most  formidable  weapon  in  the  German  armoury. 
Dissension  among  ourselves  will  be  fatal  to  any 
and  every  campaign.  Wait  and  have  patience, 
endurance,  concentration,  unity.  Personal  and 
sectional  differences,  suspicions,  resentments, 
must  be  forgotten,  or  at  any  rate  postponed ;  this 
is  no  time  to  talk  of  parties;  there  must  be  one 
party  and  that  is  the  nation.  Let  us  help  to  de- 
fend the  nation,  the  State,  the  Allied  Governments 
— America,  France,  Italy,  Russia — resist  the  at- 
tempts to  sow  mistrust  among  us  and  seek  to 
shake  our  nerves,  keep  steady  and  we  shall  win. 


A  NATION'S  THANKS. 

EXTRACTS   FROM   A    SPEECH    DELIVERED    IN   THE    HOUSE    OF 
COMMONS,   OCTOBEIR   29tH,    1917. 

I  BEG  to  move  * '  That  the  thanks  of  this  House  be 
given  to  the  officers,  petty  officers,  and  men  of  the 
Navy  for  their  faithful  watch  upon  the  seas  dur- 
ing more  than  three  years  of  ceaseless  danger  and 
stress,  while  guarding  our  shores  and  protecting 
from  the  attacks  of  a  barbarous  foe  the  commerce 
upon  which  the  victoiy  of  the  Allied  Cause  de- 
pends. 

' '  That  the  thanks  of  this  House  be  given  to  the 
officers,  non-commissioned  officers  and  men  of  the 
British  Armies  in  the  field,  and  also  to  the  women 
in  the  medical  and  other  services  auxiliary  there- 
to, for  their  unfailing  courage  and  endurance  in 
defending  the  right,  amid  sufferings  and  hard- 
ships unparalleled  in  the  history  of  war,  and  for 
their  loyal  readiness  to  continue  the  work  to  which 
they  have  set  their  hands  until  the  liberty  of  the 
world  is  secure, 

"That  the  thanks  of  this  House  be  accorded  to 
the  gallant  troops  from  the  Dominions  Overseas, 
from  India,  and  from  the  Crown  Colonies  who 
have  travelled  many  thousands  of  miles  to  share 
with  their  comrades  from  the  British  Isles  in  the 
sacrifices  and  triumphs  of  the  battlefield,  and  to 

199 


200  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

take  their  full  part  in  the  struggle  for  human  free- 
dom. 

' '  That  the  thanks  of  this  House  be  accorded  to 
the  officers  and  men  of  the  Mercantile  Marine  for 
the  devotion  to  duty  with  which  they  have  con- 
tinued to  carry  the  vital  supplies  to  the  Allies 
through  seas  infested  with  deadly  perils. 

' '  That  this  House  doth  acknowledge  with  grate- 
ful admiration  the  valour  and  devotion  of  those 
who  have  offered  their  lives  in  the  service  of  their 
country,  and  tenders  its  sympathy  to  their  rela- 
tives and  friends  in  the  sorrows  they  have  sus- 
tained." 

The  Navy. 

Even  had  I  the  leisure,  which  I  certainly  have 
not  in  these  terrible  times,  especially  in  the 
anxiety  of  the  last  two  or  three  days,  I  feel  that  I 
could  not  do  justice  to  this  great  theme,  but  the 
deeds  which  are  referred  to  in  the  Resolution  are 
so  well  known  and  have  won  universal  admiration 
and  gratitude,  not  merely  from  every  member  of 
this  House  but  from  every  subject  of  His  Majesty, 
that  I  feel  that  no  words  are  necessary  in  order 
to  commend  it  to  the  acceptance  of  any  body  of 
Britishers  throughout  the  world.  Taking  the  first 
paragraph  in  the  Resolution,  that  which  refers 
to  the  British  Navy,  the  enormous  magnitude  of 
our  Army,  the  fact  that  it  has  representatives  in 
millions  of  homes  in  the  country,  and  the  dazzling 
record  of  its  great  achievements,  may  in  some  re- 
spects have  obscured  the  service  which  the  British 


A  NATION'S  THANKS  201 

Xavy  has  rendered  to  this  countiy  and  to  its  Al- 
Hes.  The  British  Navy  is  like  one  of  those  in- 
ternal organs,  essential  to  life,  but  of  the  existence 
of  which  we  are  not  conscious  until  something 
goes  wrong.  The  Navj^  is  taken  for  granted.  In 
this  war  the  British  Navy  has  been  the  anchor  of 
the  Allied  cause.  If  it  lost  its  hold  the  hopes  of 
the  Alliance  would  be  shattered.  To  realise  the 
power  and  might  of  the  British  Navy  and  how 
essential  a  part  it  has  played  in  this  great  strug- 
gle, one  has  only  to  imagine  for  a  moment  what 
would  have  happened,  not  if  we  had  not  the  com- 
mand of  the  sea  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  but 
if  the  British  Navy  had  been  defeated  even  a 
year  ago  and  the  sceptre  of  the  seas  had  been 
snatched  by  our  foes.  Our  armies  in  France,  in 
Mesopotamia,  in  Salonika,  and  in  Egypt  would 
have  languished  and  finally  vanished  for  lack  of 
support  in  men  and  material.  France,  deprived 
not  merely  of  our  support  but  of  the  material  as- 
sistance which  the  British  Navy  enables  us  still 
to  get  from  abroad,  would  be  unable  probably  to 
defend  herself  against  the  overwhelming  hordes 
of  the  foe.  Italy,  deprived  at  home  of  her  am- 
munition and  of  food,  would  have  fallen  a  ready 
prey  to  her  fierce  and  vindictive  enemies,  which 
she  has  not  done  yet  and  will  not  do.  Russia,  cut 
off  on  the  east  and  the  west,  would  indeed  have 
been  defenceless.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  but  for  the  British  Navy  overwhelming  dis- 
aster would  have  fallen  on  the  Allied  cause.  Pitis- 
sia  would  have  been  the   insolent   mistress   of 


202  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Europe,  and  through  Europe,  of  the  world. 
Never  in  the  whole  of  the  affairs  of  the  world  has 
the  British  Navy  been  a  more  potent  and  a  more 
beneficent  influence  in  the  affairs  of  men.  What 
has  it  accomplished?  In  spite  of  hidden  foes,  as 
well  as  open  attack,  in  spite  of  legitimate  naval 
warfare  and  in  spite  of  black  piracy,  it  has  pre- 
served the  highway  of  the  seas  for  Britain  and 
her  Allies. 


The  Mercantile  Marine. 

As  to  the  smaller  craft  of  the  Fleet,  their  work 
and  peril  never  ends.  They  are  numbered  by  the 
thousand,  and  their  hardships  and  dangers  are 
barely  realised,  but  through  their  action  security 
and  plenty  are  enjoyed  by  the  population  of  these 
Islands.  They  patrol  the  seas  from  the  icy  waters 
of  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  the  stormy  floods  of  Ma- 
gellan. There  is  not  an  ocean,  a  sea,  a  bay,  a  gulf 
— there  is  not  an  estuary  used  for  commerce  which 
is  not  patrolled  by  the  ships  of  the  British  Navy. 
How  dangerous  a  task  it  is  the  casualty  lists  pro- 
claim, because  in  proportion  to  their  numbers 
the  dead  are  equal  to  those  of  the  British  Army. 
Through  it  all  the  command  of  the  sea  has  been 
maintained.  I  am  glad  that  in  this  respect  special 
recognition  is  accorded  to  the  officers  and  men  of 
the  mercantile  marine.  It  is  a  great  distinction 
for  any  civilian  body  to  be  placed  in  the  same 
category  as  the  soldiers  of  the  British  Aimy  and 


A  NATION'S  THANKS  203 

the  sailors  of  the  British  Navy,  but  the  officers 
and  men  of  the  British  mercantile  marine  have 
won  that  distinction.  Seamansliip  at  best  is  a 
comfortless  and  a  cheerless  calling.  I  remember 
that  when  I  occupied  the  office  which  is  now  held 
by  my  right  hon.  friend  (Sir  A.  Stanley),  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  concern  of  the 
Department  at  that  time  was  the  difficulty  in  get- 
ting men  to  engage  in  this  avocation,  and  as  the 
standard  of  living  improved  it  was  impossible 
almost  to  persuade  men  to  pursue  a  trade  so  full 
of  peril  and  so  devoid  of  comfort.  That  was  in 
time  of  peace.  What  is  it  now?  During  the  war 
the  strain,  the  hardship,  the  terror,  the  peril,  have 
increased  manifold.  Piracy  is  more  rampant  and 
ruthless  than  it  has  ever  been  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  This  is  a  new  terror  added  to  those  of  the 
deep. 

The  risks  of  the  navigator  have  increased  in 
every  direction.  Lighthouses  which  were  there 
to  warn  the  mariner  against  imminent  peril  are, 
many  of  them,  dark.  Ships  have  to  tear  at  full 
speed  through  fog  and  through  storm  to  avoid 
worse  dangers,  and  the  ceaseless  watch  has  now 
a  new  and  more  terrible  meaning.  And  not  merely 
in  the  daylight — the  sailor  has  to  spear  the  dark 
for  objects  hardly  visible  on  the  surface  of  the 
seas,  even  in  sunlight ;  and  yet  life  depends  upon 
observing  those  objects  in  time.  Then  when  the 
blow  comes  from  the  invisible  foe  they  are  faced 
with  conditions  which  would  make  the  stoutest 
heart  pall.    The  mariner  is  left  with  the  surging 


204  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

seas  around  him,  scores  of  miles  from  a  friendly 
shore.  And  yet  amongst  those  who  go  down  to 
the  deep  in  ships  there  has  not  been  found  one 
man  who  failed  to  return.  I  have  made  inquiries, 
and  I  am  told  on  all  hands  that  the  men  return 
with  greater  alacrity  than  in  times  of  peace.  Men 
torpedoed  twice,  thrice,  seven  times,  lose  no  time 
in  seeking  another  ship,  hardly  wait  for  their  pa- 
pers before  they  return,  because  they  realise  that 
in  these  times  their  country  cannot  spare  one  man 
or  one  hour  of  time. 

This  is  no  time  to  dwell  upon  the  dark  deeds 
of  our  foes  on  the  sea;  but  they  are  all  in  the 
reckoning.  What  has  struck  me  with  regard  to  the 
sailors  is  this:  that  they  have  no  fear  of  danger. 
There  is  not  one  of  them  who  shirks  it;  but  they 
abhor  the  degradation  of  seamanship  involved  in 
these  actions  and  the  dishonour  to  the  traditions 
of  a  noble  calling.  That  is  why  the  sailor  stead- 
fastly refuses  to  have  any  traffic  with  men  who  are 
guilty  of  such  conduct,  or  of  sanctioning  it,  until 
the  stain  is  wiped  out. 

The  Fishermen. 

I  would  like  to  say  a  word  about  our  fishermen. 
Their  contribution  has  been  a  great  one.  Sixty 
per  cent,  of  our  fishermen  are  in  the  Naval  Serv- 
ice. Their  trawlers  are  engaged  in  some  of  the 
most  perilous  tasks  that  can  be  entrusted  to 
sailors.  There  is  mine-sweeping,  a  dangerous  oc- 
cupation often  ending  in  disaster.     The  number 


A  NATION'S  THANKS  205 

of  mines  they  have  swept  is  incredible,  and  if  they 
had  not  done  this  Britain  would  now  have  been 
blockaded  by  a  ring  of  deadly  machines  anchored 
round  our  shores.  But  their  services  have  not 
been  confined  to  this  work.  You  find  their  trawlers 
patrolling  the  seas  everywhere  protecting  ships, 
and  not  merely  around  the  British  Isles.  You  find 
these  fishing  trawlers  in  the  Mediterranean. 
These  men  surely  deserve  the  best  thanks  that  we 
can  accord  them  for  the  services  which  they  have 
rendered. 

I  should  like  to  give  the  House  one  or  two  illus- 
trations of  the  way  in  which  these  fishermen  have 
faced  these  new  perils.  Here  is  one  case  given  to 
me  by  the  Admiralty.  A  trawler  was  attacked 
by  the  gunfire  of  a  German  submarine.  Though 
armed  only  with  a  three-pounder  gun  and  out- 
ranged by  her  opponents  she  refused  to  haul  down 
her  flag,  even  when  the  skipper  had  both  legs  shot 
off  and  most  of  the  crew  were  killed  or  injured. 
"Throw  the  confidential  books  overboard  and 
throw  me  after  them,"  said  the  skipper,  and,  re- 
fusing to  leave  his  ship  when  the  few  survivors 
took  to  the  boat,  he  went  down  with  his  trawler. 
There  is  another  case  of  an  armed  trawler  escort- 
ing a  number  of  fishing  vessels.  Attacked  by 
submarines,  outranged,  the  main  boom  broken, 
the  funnel  down,  the  wheelhouse  blown  up,  the 
steering  gear  disabled,  many  of  the  men  killed,  the 
ship  sinking,  they  patched  her  up  with  canvas; 
she  goes  on  fighting,  and  when  she  ultimately  goes 
down  the  fishing  fleet  is  safe  in  port.    These  are 


206  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

not  men  trained  for  war.  These  are  fishermen; 
but  this  is  the  spirit  that  has  animated  our  sailors 
whether  in  the  Navy  or  in  the  Mercantile  Marine 
or  our  fishing  fleets.  Never  have  British  sailors, 
whether  in  the  Navy  or  in  the  auxiliary  services, 
shown  more  grit.  Never  have  they  rendered 
greater  service  to  their  native  land  or  to  hu- 
manity. For  their  courage,  for  their  resolution, 
for  the  service  they  have  rendered  and  for  the 
resource  they  have  shown,  I  invite  the  House  in 
this  Resolution  to  thank  them,  officers  and  men. 

The  Old  Army. 

I  come  now  to  the  part  of  the  Resolution  which 
deals  with  the  Army.  Our  Expeditionary  Force 
numbered  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  160,000 
men.  Our  Expeditionary  Forces  to-day  number 
over  3,000,000 — probably  the  greatest  feat  of 
military  organisation  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
It  never  could  have  been  accomplished  but  for 
the  heroism  and  self-sacrifice  of  the  old  Army — 
the  old  Army,  the  finest  body  of  troops  in  the 
world  at  that  time,  more  highly  trained,  more  dis- 
ciplined, more  perfect  in  physique  than  any  other. 
It  saved  Europe.  In  the  retreat  from  Mons  it  de- 
layed overwhelming  hordes  of  the  enemy,  and 
at  the  Marne  helped  to  roll  back  the  invader.  But 
more  than  all,  the  great  first  battle  of  Ypres  was 
one  of  the  decisive  battles  of  the  world.  With 
unparalleled  tenacity  and  sacrifice  it  held  su- 
perior forces  for  weeks — ^held  them  finally.    The 


A  NATION'S  THANKS  207 

enemy  superior  in  numbers  and  material;  our 
troops  short  of  heavy  artillery  and  ammunition, 
with  no  reserves.  Every  man  was  put  in,  cavalry- 
men, cooks,  drivers,  servants,  and  through  the 
individual  efforts  of  officers  and  men,  iron  dis- 
cipline, dogged  determination,  the  Army  held  out 
to  the  last  and  saved  us  from  disaster.  By  the 
end  of  November  France  was  saved,  and  Europe ; 
and  there  was  hardly  a  man  left  out  of  the  old 
Army.  One  division  went  into  battle  12,000 
strong.  It  came  out  3,000.  Of  400  officers  only 
fifty  were  left — in  one  battle.  The  old  Army  is 
the  A^-my  that  gathered  the  spears  of  the  Prus- 
sian legions  into  its  breast,  and  in  perishing  saved 
Europe.  No  sacrifice  in  the  history  of  the  world 
has  had  greater  results,  and  those  seven  divisions 
have  a  unique  position  in  history  and  in  the  an- 
nals of  the  British  Army. 

The  Territorials. 

Then  after  that  came  the  dreary  winter  and 
spring  of  1914  and  1915.  Most  of  the  old  veterans 
gone !  And  here  let  me  say  a  word  for  the  Ter- 
ritorials who  came  to  the  rescue.  Old  Army  gone ; 
New  Army  not  ready;  and  somebody  had  to  oc- 
cupy water-logged  trenches.  Somebody  had  to 
stand  torrents  of  shot  and  shell  from  well- 
equipped  artillery,  with  orders  that  only  two  or 
three  shells  could  be  spared  for  our  guns.  Some- 
body had  to  do  that  for  months  while  the  New 
Army  was  getting  ready;  and  the  Territorials 


208  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

fought  with  the  ardour  of  recruits  in  their  first 
charge;  yea,  and  with  the  steadiness  of  veterans 
in  their  hundredth  fight!  And  let  me  say  one 
word  here — and  I  am  glad  to  say  it — we  owe  a  debt 
of  gratitude  to  the  man  who  created  that  organisa- 
tion which  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  Empire  at 
such  a  critical  hour. 


The  New  Army. 

Now  we  come  to  our  New  Army,  who  occupy  the 
battle  line  from  the  German  Ocean  to  the  Persian 
Gulf.  The  raising  and  training  of  that  Am:  /  was 
an  unexampled  feat,  and  will  always  be  associated 
with  the  name,  the  great  name,  of  Lord  Kitchener. 
I  could  not  even  pretend  to  give  a  summary  of 
their  achievements.  We  know,  we  have  heard, 
many  descriptions  of  battles,  and  all  I  can  say  is 
that  it  fills  us  with  a  sense  of  swelling  pride  that 
we  should  belong  to  the  race  that  has  produced 
such  men.  There  has  been  nothing  comparable  to 
the  sustained  courage  displayed  by  the  British 
soldier  in  this  war.  In  previous  wars  you  had 
great,  you  had  fierce,  battles,  wliich  lasted  for 
hours,  not  many  of  them  lasting  for  days.  Those 
have  been  the  great  examples  in  history ;  and  then 
you  had  long  intervals  of  marching  and  prepara- 
tion. Now  you  have  battles  that  last  not  for 
hours,  not  for  days  or  for  weeks,  but  battles  that 
last  for  months.  Never  has  British  courage  been 
put  to  so  terrible  a  test;  never  has  it  endured  it 
so  triumphantly.    When  I  read  of  the  conditions 


A  NATION'S  THANKS  209 

under  whioli  our  gallant  soldiers  fight  I  marvel 
that  the  delicate  and  sensitive  mechanism  of  the 
human  nerve  and  th6  human  mind  can  endure 
them  without  derangement.  The  campaigns  of 
Stonewall  Jackson  fill  us  with  admiration  and  with 
wonder.  How  that  man  of  iron  led  his  troops 
through  the  mire  and  the  swamps  of  Virginia! 
But  his  men  were  never  called  upon  to  lie  for 
days  and  nights  in  morasses  under  ceaseless 
thunderbolts  from  a  powerful  artillery,  and  then 
march  into  battle  through  an  engulfing  quagmire 
under  a  hailstorm  of  machine-gun  fire.  That  is 
what  our  troops  have  gone  through. 

They  were  confronted  with  the  finest  Army  in 
the  world — the  men  trained  for  years,  the  officers 
instructed  and  prepared  for  this  hour.  Our  men, 
with  a  few  months'  training,  our  officers  in  the 
main  taken  from  counting  houses,  factories, 
schools  and  colleges.  Their  generals,  accustomed 
to  handle  scores  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
men  in  great  manoeuvres,  while  ours  at  the  best 
were  only  afforded  the  opportunity  of  handling  a 
few  thousands.  And  yet  these  men  with  this 
training,  with  these  scant  opportunities,  are  bring- 
ing to  defeat  veteran  armies,  entrenched  in  for- 
midable positions.  We  really  owe  a  debt  of  the 
deepest  thanks  to  this  great  Army.  I  can  only 
barely  refer  to  their  achievements  in  other  things. 
In  Salonika  they  have  had  few  opportunities  for 
glory.  They  arrived  too  late  to  save  Serbia,  but 
they  have  faced  the  malaria  of  summer  and  the 
piercing  cold  of  winter,  and  they  have  borne  them 


210  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

all  with  spirit  and  good  clieer,  because  no  country 
has  ever  had  more  cheerful  heroes  than  we  have. 
In  Mesopotamia  there  is  a  record  of  heroism — 
the  way  they  endured  the  disasters  of  the  earlier 
months,  the  brilliant  way  in  which  they  retrieved 
those  disasters,  re-estabhshing  British  prestige 
throughout  the  East.  In  Africa,  under  most  try- 
ing conditions  of  climate — everj^where — these 
men  have  behaved  in  a  way  which  is  worthy  of 
the  great  country  to  which  they  belong,  and  of 
the  record  of  the  great  Army  in  which  they  are 
serving. 


The  Dominions. 

I  must  say  a  word  now  about  the  Dominions. 
They  have  contributed  between  700,000  and  800,- 
000  men.  What  does  that  mean? — five  times  the 
number  of  our  Expeditionary  Force.  And  what 
a  contribution!  How  well  they  have  fought,  the 
citizen  armies!  The  ready  and  resourceful  cour- 
age of  the  Canadians — how  it  saved  France  and 
the  British  Army  at  the  second  battle  of  Ypres! 
How,  on  the  heights  of  Vimy,  they  swept  the  foe 
from  the  positions  where  they  had  defied  the 
greatest  armies  of  the  Allies  for  two  or  three 
years !  And  then  the  men  of  the  Southern  Seas, 
of  Australia  and  New  Zealand — the  dash  and  the 
tenacity  which  enabled  them  first  to  capture  the 
precipitous  rocks  of  Anzac,  and  to  cling  to  them 
for  months ;  to  capture  Pozieres  and  to  hold  Bulle- 


A  NATION'S  THANKS  311 

court;  tlie  men  who  came  in  smaller  contingents 
from  South  Africa,  clearing  DelviUe  Wood;  and 
the  noble  sacrifices  of  the  men  of  Newfoundland. 
I  could  not  even  give  a  catalogue  of  their  achieve- 
ments without  detaining  the  House  beyond  the 
limits.  And  then  there  is  India.  How  bravely, 
how  loyally  she  has  supported  the  British  arms  I 
The  memory  of  the  powerful  aid  which  she  will- 
ingly accorded  in  the  hour  of  our  trouble  will  not 
be  forgotten  after  the  war  is  over,  and  when  the 
affairs  of  India  come  up  for  examination  and  for 
action.  Then  our  Colonies  throughout  the  world, 
how  they  helped  in  men  and  assisted  us  with 
labour!  Never  has  the  British  Empire  shown 
greater  and  more  effective  unity.  It  was  regarded 
as  a  dream  by  many ;  now  it  is  a  fact — a  powerful 
fact,  fashioning  the  history  of  the  world  and  the 
destinies  of  men. 

The  Air  Service. 

It  would  be  invidious  if  I  were  to  attempt  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  various  arms  of  the  Serv- 
ice— our  splendid  Infantry  who  have  borne  the 
brunt  of  the  battle,  our  Cavalry,  and  our  Artil- 
lery, who  have  lost  more  heavily,  perhaps,  in  this 
war  than  in  any  war  ever  waged.  The  mere  fact 
that  we  have  the  Artillery  is  in  itself  an  achieve- 
ment. Who  would  have  believed — when  you 
thought  it  took  years  to  train  gunners — that  in  a 
few  months  we  would  turn  out  Artillery  the  pre- 
cision of  whose  fire  is  at  once  the  admiration  and 


gl2  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

terror  of  the  foe.  But,  amongst  all  these,  I  may  be 
permitted  to  mention  one  arm  of  the  Service  which 
has  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  this  great  war — 
I  mean  the  Air  Service.  I  am  sure  the  House 
would  like  special  mention  to  be  made  of  our  Air 
Service.  The  heavens  are  their  battlefield;  they 
are  the  Cavalry  of  the  clouds.  High  above  the 
squalor  and  the  mud,  so  high  in  the  firmament  that 
they  are  not  visible  from  earth,  they  fight  out  the 
eternal  issues  of  right  and  wrong.  Their  daily, 
yea,  their  nightly  struggles,  are  like  the  Miltonic 
conflict  between  the  winged  hosts  of  light  and  of 
darkness.  They  fight  the  foe  high  up  and  they 
fight  him  low  down;  they  skim  like  armed  swal- 
lows, hanging  over  trenches  full  of  armed  men, 
wrecking  convoys,  scattering  infantry,  attacking 
battalions  on  the  march.  Every  flight  is  a  ro- 
mance; every  report  is  an  epic.  They  are  the 
knighthood  of  this  war,  without  fear  and  without 
reproach.  They  recall  the  old  legends  of  chivalry, 
not  merely  by  the  daring  of  their  exploits,  but 
by  the  nobility  of  their  spirit,  and,  amongst  the 
multitudes  of  heroes,  let  us  think  of  the  chivalry 
of  the  air. 

The  Chaplains  and  the  Medical  Service. 

I  do  not  think  we  ought  to  pass  by  the  chap- 
lains in  the  Army.  They  have  sustained  their 
losses  and  have  done  their  duty  manfully,  coura- 
geously and  tenderly.  When  you  come  to  the  Medi- 
cal Service,  the  men  and  the  women,  they  have 


A  NATION'S  THANKS  213 

never  shown  greater  courage,  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience. Thousands  of  them  have  devoted  them- 
selves— devotion  is  the  right  word — to  the  cur- 
ing of  the  wounded  and  the  healing  of  the  sick. 
Great  consultants  have  given  up  princely  incomes 
and  volunteered  for  this  service.  Wounds  have 
been  cured  which  before  the  war  were  regarded 
as  fatal,  and  I  may  give  an  illustration,  and  only 
one  illustration,  of  the  services  they  have  rendered 
in  saving  life,  not  merely  by  their  curing  ex- 
pedients, but  by  the  precautions  they  have  taken. 
In  the  South  African  War,  I  believe,  50,000  men 
died  of  typhoid.  In  France,  out  of  our  gigantic 
Army,  during  the  w^hole  three  years  of  the  war, 
only  3,000  have  fallen  victims  to  this  disease.  We 
owe  thanks  to  the  medical  profession.  They  have 
suffered;  hundreds  have  been  killed  and  many 
more  hundreds  wounded.  We  should  also  thank 
the  women,  our  trained  and  untrained  nurses, 
whose  tenderness  and  care  for  the  wounded  have 
earned  thanks  from  the  lips  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  poor  men  whose  lives  have  been  saved, 
and  who  have  been  spared  much  suffering  through 
their  tender  ministration.  They  have  not  escaped 
perils.  Many  have  been  killed  by  shell-fire,  many 
of  them  drowned  in  hospital  ships  sunk  with  the 
sign  of  the  Red  Cross.  We  all  owe  them  a  debt 
of  gratitude. 


The  last  paragraph  in  the  Resolution  is  one  I 
must  say  a  word  about,  and  it  will  be  brief.    There 


214  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  sorrowing  men  and 
women  in  this  land  on  account  of  the  war.  Their 
anguish  is  too  deep  to  be  expressed  or  to  be  com- 
forted by  words,  but,  judging  the  multitudes  whom 
I  know  not  by  those  I  do  know,  there  is  not  a 
single  one  of  them  who  would  recall  the  valiant 
dead  to  life  at  the  price  of  their  country's  dis- 
honour. The  example  of  these  brave  men  who 
have  fallen  has  enriched  the  life  and  exalted  the 
purpose  of  all  people.  You  cannot  have  4,000,000 
of  men  in  any  land  who  voluntarily  sacrificed 
everything  the  world  can  offer  them  in  obedience 
to  a  higher  call  without  ennobling  the  country 
from  which  they  sprang,  and  the  fallen,  whilst 
they  have  illumined  with  a  fresh  lustre  the  glory 
of  their  native  land,  have  touched  with  a  new  dig- 
nity the  households  which  they  left  for  the  battle- 
field. There  will  be  millions  who  will  come  back 
and  live  to  tell  children  now  unborn  how  a  genera- 
tion before  in  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  and 
Wales,  and  in  the  ends  of  the  earth,  the  men  of 
our  race  were  willing  to  leave  ease  and  comfort 
to  face  privation,  torture,  and  death  to  win  pro- 
tection for  the  weak  and  justice  for  the  oppressed. 
There  are  hundreds  of  thousands  who  will  never 
come  back.  For  them  there  wil)  be  for  ages  to 
come  sacred  memories  in  a  myriad  of  homes,  of 
brave,  chivalrous  men  who  gave  up  their  young 
lives  for  justice,  for  right,  for  freedom  in  peril. 
This  Resolution  means  that  the  greatest  Empire 
on  earth,  through  this  House,  thanks  the  living 
for  the  readiness  with  which  they  obeyed  its  sum- 


A  NATION'S  THANKS  215 

mons  and  the  gallantry  with  which  they  supported 
its  behests.  It  also  means  that  this  great  Em- 
pire, through  this  House,  enters  each  home  of  the 
heroic  dead,  grasps  the  bereaved  by  the  hand, 
and  says,  "The  Empire  owes  you  gratitude  for 
your  share  of  the  sacrifice  as  well  as  for  theirs, 
partakes  in  your  pride  for  their  valour,  and  in 
your  grief  for  their  fall.'* 


THE    CO-ORDINATION   OF  MILITARY  EFFORT. 

SPEECH   DELIVERED   IN   PARIS   ON  THE    SETTING   UP   OP   THE 
SUPREME  ALLIED  WAR  COUNCIL,  NOVEMBER  13tH,  1917. 

I  MUST  claim  your  indulgence  for  taking  up  the 
time  of  so  many  men  who  hold  great  and  re- 
sponsible positions  in  the  State  and  the  Legis- 
lature at  a  moment  when  they  can  ill  spare  from 
the  conduct  of  important  affairs  time  for  listen- 
ing to  speeches.  My  only  apology  is  that  I  have 
important  practical  considerations  to  submit  to 
you,  which  affect  not  merely  the  future  of  your 
own  country  and  of  mine,  but  the  destiny  of  the 
world.  I  have  one  advantage  in  speaking  of  this 
war,  in  that  I  am  almost  the  only  Minister  in  any 
land,  on  either  side,  who  has  been  in  it  from  the 
beginning  to  this  hour.  I  therefore  ought  to  know 
something  about  the  course  of  events  and  their 
hidden  causes.  Of  both  I  want  to  say  something 
to  you  to-day. 

My  friend  and  comrade,  M.  Painleve,  has  ex- 
plained to  you  the  important  decision  taken  by 
the  Governments  of  France,  Italy,  and  Great 
Britain  in  setting  up  a  Supreme  Council  of  the 
Allies  whose  forces  operate  in  the  West  to  en- 
sure the  united  direction  of  their  efforts  on  that 
front.  As  he  has  already  explained,  that  Coun- 
cil will  consist  of  the  leading  Ministers  of  the  Al- 

216 


MILITARY  EFFORT  217 

lied  countries,  advised  by  some  of  their  most 
distinguished  soldiers,  and  the  choice  which  has 
already  been  made  by  these  countries  of  their  ex- 
perts proves  that  the  Governments  mean  this 
Council  to  be  a  real  power  in  the  co-ordination  of 
their  military  effort. 

Unfortunately,  there  was  no  time  to  consult 
America  and  Russia  before  setting  up  this  Coun- 
cil. The  Italian  disaster  and  the  need  of  imme- 
diate action  to  repair  it  rendered  it  essential  that 
we  should  make  a  start  with  the  Powers  whose 
forces  could  be  drawn  upon  for  action  on  the 
Italian  front.  But  in  order  to  ensure  the  com- 
plete success  of  this  great  experiment — an  ex- 
periment the  success  of  which  I  believe  to  be  es- 
sential to  victory  for  the  Allied  cause — it  is  nec- 
essary that  all  our  great  Allies  should  be  repre- 
sented in  its  deliberations,  and  I  look  forward 
with  confidence  to  securing  the  agreement  of  those 
two  great  countries  and  to  their  co-operation  in 
the  work  of  this  Council. 

There  are  two  questions  which  may  be  asked 
with  reference  to  the  step  which  we  have  taken. 
Why  are  we  taking  it  now?  That  is  easy  to  an- 
swer. The  second  question  is  more  difficult  to  find 
a  satisfactory  answer  for — Why  did  we  not  take 
it  before? 

I  propose  to  answer  both.  In  regard  to  the  first 
question,  the  events  of  the  war  have  demonstrated, 
even  to  the  most  separatist  and  suspicious  mind, 
the  need  for  greater  unity  amongst  the  Allies  in 
their  war  control.    The  Allies  had  on  their  side 


218  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

— in  spite  of  all  that  has  happened  they  still  have 
at  their  command — all  the  essential  ingredients 
of  victory.  They  have  command  of  the  sea,  which 
has  never  yet  failed  to  bring  victory  in  the  end  to 
the  Power  that  can  hold  out.  On  land  they  have 
the  advantage  in  numbers,  in  weight  of  men  and 
material,  in  economic  and  financial  resources,  and 
beyond  and  above  all  in  the  justice  of  their  cause. 
In  a  prolonged  war  nothing  counts  as  much  as  a 
good  conscience.  This  combined  with  superiority 
ought  ere  now  to  have  ensured  victory  for  the 
Allies.  At  least  it  ought  to  have  carried  them 
much  further  along  the  road  to  victory  than  the 
point  which  they  have  yet  reached.  To  the  extent 
that  they  have  failed  in  achieving  their  purpose, 
who  and  what  are  responsible? 

Let  us  ruthlessly  search  out  the  answer  to  that 
question  without  undue  regard  to  susceptibilities. 
The  fate  of  the  world  is  at  stake  and  we  have  no 
right  to  think  of  anything  but  realities.  The  fault 
has  not  been  with  the  Navies  or  with  the  Armies. 
We  all  admire  the  skill  of  our  naval  and  military 
leaders.  We  are  all  enthralled  with  the  valour 
of  our  sailors  and  soldiers.  The  defence  of  Ver- 
dun will  be  remembered  with  amazement  and  with 
pride  until  the  world  grows  cold.  Yea,  and  the 
story  of  the  indomitable  tenacity  which  won  the 
crests  of  Passchendaele,  after  months  of  conflict 
almost  unexampled  in  its  fierce  stubbornness,  will 
make  the  mists  of  my  native  land  ever  glow  with 
splendour.  And  let  me  say  this  word  for  the 
Italian  Army  in  its  hour  of  discomfiture :    No  one 


MILITARY  EFFORT  219 

can  look  at  those  frontier  mountains  without  a 
thrill  of  respect  for  the  gallantry  that  once 
stormed  them  in  face  of  the  entrenched  legions  of 
Austria. 

Let  us  also  bo  just  to  Russia.  Russia  is  suf- 
fering from  a  violent  fever,  into  which  she  has 
been  driven  by  conditions  of  atrocious  misgovern- 
ment.  She  is  making  a  great  struggle,  and 
through  fluctuations  she  is  winning  her  way  to 
steadier  and  cleaner  health  than  she  has  ever  yet 
enjoyed.  She  now  lies  stricken  through  no  fault 
of  her  o^^^l.  Let  us  not  forget  what  she  did  in  the 
early  hours  of  the  war,  when  her  heroic  sacrifice 
helped  to  save  the  West,  in  France  and  in  Italy, 
from  the  cruel  dominion  of  the  Prussian.  And 
there  are  the  heroic  little  nations  who  have  lost 
their  lands.  Let  us  not  forget  their  gallantry, 
their  sacrifice. 

No,  the  fault  has  not  been  with  the  armies.  It 
has  been  entirely  due  to  the  absence  of  real  unity 
in  the  war  direction  of  the  Allied  countries.  We 
have  all  felt  the  need  for  it.  We  have  all  talked 
about  it.  We  have  passed  endless  resolutions  re- 
solving it.  But  it  has  never  yet  been  achieved.  In 
this  important  matter  we  have  never  passed  from 
rhetoric  into  reality,  from  speech  into  strategy. 

In  spite  of  all  the  resolutions  there  has  been  no 
authority  responsible  for  co-ordinating  the  con- 
duct of  the  war  on  all  fronts,  and  in  the  absence 
of  that  central  authority  each  countiy  was  left  to 
its  own  devices.  We  have  gone  on  talking  of  the 
Eastern  front  and  the  Western  front  and  the 


220  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Italian  front  and  the  Salonika  front  and  the 
Egyptian  front  and  the  Mesopotamia  front,  for- 
getting that  there  is  but  one  front  with  many 
flanks ;  that  with  these  colossal  armies  the  battle- 
field is  continental. 

As  my  colleagues  here  know  very  well,  there 
have  been  many  attempts  made  to  achieve 
strategic  unity.  Conferences  have  been  annually 
held  to  concert  united  action  for  the  campaign  of 
the  coming  year.  Great  generals  came  from  many 
lands  to  Paris  with  carefully  and  sldlfully  pre- 
pared plans  for  their  own  fronts.  In  the  absence 
of  a  genuine  Inter-AJlied  Council  of  men  re- 
sponsible as  much  for  one  part  of  the  battlefield 
as  for  another  there  was  a  sensitiveness,  a  deli- 
cacy about  even  tendering  advice,  letting  alone 
support  for  any  sector  other  than  that  for  which 
the  generals  were  themselves  directly  responsible. 
But  there  had  to  be  an  appearance  of  a  strategic 
whole,  so  they  all  sat  at  the  same  table  and, 
metaphorically,  took  thread  and  needle,  sewed 
these  plans  together,  and  produced  them  to  a  sub- 
sequent civilian  conference  as  one  great  strategic 
piece ;  and  it  was  solemnly  proclaimed  to  the  world 
the  following  morning  that  the  unity  of  the  Allies 
was  complete. 

That  unity,  in  so  far  as  strategy  went,  was  pure 
make-believe;  and  make-believe  may  live  through 
a  generation  of  peace — it  cannot  survive  a  week 
of  war.  It  was  a  collection  of  completely  inde- 
pendent schemes  pieced  together.  Stitching  is  not 
strategy.     So  it  came  to  pass  that  when  these 


MILITARY  EFFORT  221 

plans  were  worked  out  in  the  terrible  realities  of 
war  the  stitches  came  out  and  disintegration  was 
complete. 

I  know  the  answer  that  is  given  to  an  appeal  for 
unity  of  control.  It  is  that  Germany  and  Austria 
are  acting  on  interior  lines,  whereas  we  are  on 
external  lines.  That  is  no  answer.  That  fact 
simply  affords  an  additional  argument  for  unifica- 
tion of  effort  in  order  to  overcome  the  natural 
advantages  possessed  by  the  foe. 

You  have  only  to  summarise  events  to  realise 
how  many  of  the  failures  from  which  we  have 
suffered  are  attributable  to  this  one  fundamental 
defect  in  the  Allied  war  organisation.  We  have 
won  great  victories.  When  I  look  at  the  appalling 
casualty  lists  I  sometimes  wish  it  had  not  been 
necessary  to  win  so  many.  Still,  on  one  impor- 
tant part  of  the  land  front  we  have  more  than  held 
our  own.  We  have  driven  the  enemy  back.  On 
the  sea  front  we  have  beaten  him,  in  spite  of  the 
infamy  of  the  submarine  warfare.  We  have 
achieved  a  great  deal ;  I  believe  we  should  already 
have  achieved  all  if  in  time  we  had  achieved  unity. 

There  is  one  feature  of  this  war  which  makes  it 
unique  among  all  the  innumerable  wars  of  the 
past.  It  is  a  siege  of  nations.  The  Allies  are 
blockading  two  huge  Empires.  It  would  have 
been  well  for  us  if  at  all  times  we  had  thoroughly 
grasped  that  fact.  In  a  siege  not  only  must  every 
part  of  the  line  of  circumvallation  be  strong 
enough  to  resist  the  strongest  attack  which  the 
besieged  can  bring  to  bear  upon  it ;  more  than  that, 


S22  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

the  besieging  army  must  be  ready  to  strike  at  the 
weakest  point  of  the  enemy,  wherever  tliat  may  be. 
Have  we  done  so?    Look  at  the  facts. 

The  enemy  was  cut  otf  by  the  Allied  navies  from 
all  the  rich  lands  beyond  the  seas,  whence  he  had 
been  drawing  enormous  stores  of  food  and  ma- 
terial. On  the  east  he  was  blockaded  by  Russia, 
on  the  west  by  the  armies  of  France,  Britain,  and 
Italy.  But  the  south,  the  important  south,  with 
its  gateway  to  the  East,  was  left  to  be  held  by 
the  forces  of  a  small  country  with  half  the  popu- 
lation of  Belgium,  its  armies  exhausted  by  the 
struggles  of  three  wars  and  with  two  treacherous 
kings  behind,  lying  in  wait  for  an  opportunitj^  to 
knife  it  when  it  was  engaged  in  defending  it- 
self against  a  mightier  foe. 

What  was  the  result  of  this  inconceivable 
blunder?  What  would  any  man  whose  mind  was 
devoted  to  the  examination  of  the  whole,  not 
merely  to  one  part  of  the  great  battlefield,  have 
expected  to  happen?  Exactly  what  did  happen. 
While  we  were  hammering  with  the  whole  of  our 
might  at  the  impenetrable  barrier  in  the  West, 
the  Central  Powers,  feeling  confident  that  we 
could  not  break  through,  threw  their  weight  on 
that  little  country,  crushed  her  resistance,  opened 
the  gate  to  the  East,  and  unlocked  great  stores  of 
com,  cattle,  and  minerals,  yea,  unlocked  the  door 
of  hope — all  essential  to  enable  Germany  to  sus- 
tain her  struggle. 

Without  these  additional  stores  Germany  might 
have  failed  to  support  her  armies  at  full  strength. 


MILITARY  EFFORT  223 

Hundreds  of  thousands  of  splendid  fighting  ma- 
terial were  added  to  the  armies  which  Germany 
can  control — added  to  her  and  lost  to  us.  Turkey, 
which  at  that  time  had  nearly  exhausted  its  re- 
sources for  war,  cut  off  from  the  only  possible 
source  of  supply,  was  re-equipped  and  resusci- 
tated, and  became  once  more  a  formidable  mili- 
tary Power,  whose  activities  absorbed  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  our  best  men  in  order  to  enable 
us  at  all  to  retain  our  prestige  in  the  East.  By 
this  fatuity  this  terrible  war  was  given  new  life. 

Why  was  this  incredible  blunder  perpetrated? 
The  answer  is  simple.  Because  it  was  no  one's 
business  in  particular  to  guard  the  gates  of  the 
Balkans.  The  one  front  had  not  become  a  reality. 
France  and  England  were  absorbed  in  other 
spheres.  Italy  had  her  mind  on  the  Carso.  Rus- 
sia had  a  1,000-mile  frontier  to  guard,  and,  even 
if  she  had  not,  she  could  not  get  through  to  help 
Serbia,  because  Rumania  was  neutral.  It  is  true 
we  sent  forces  to  Salonika  to  rescue  Serbia,  but, 
as  usual,  they  were  sent  too  late.  They  were  sent 
when  the  mischief  was  complete.  Half  of  those 
forces  sent  in  time — ^nay,  half  the  men  who  fell  in 
the  futile  attempt  to  break  through  on  the  Western 
front  in  September  of  that  year — ^would  have 
saved  Serbia,  would  have  saved  the  Balkans  and 
completed  the  blockade  of  Germany. 

You  may  say  that  is  an  old  story.  I  wish  it 
were.  It  is  simply  the  first  chapter  of  a  serial 
which  has  been  running  to  this  hour.  1915  was 
the    year    of    tragedy    for    Serbia;    1916    was     ^ 


2M  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

tlie  year  of  tragedy  for  Rumania.  The  story  is 
too  fresh  in  our  memories  to  make  it  necessary 
for  me  to  recapitulate  events.  What  am  I  to  say? 
I  have  nothing  to  say  but  that  it  was  the  Serbian 
story  almost  without  a  variation.  It  is  incredible 
when  you  think  of  the  consequences  to  the  Allied 
cause  of  the  Rumanian  defeat.  The  rich  corn 
and  oil  fields  of  Rumania  passed  to  the  foe.  Ger- 
many was  enabled  to  escape  through  to  the  harvest 
of  1917.  The  siege  of  the  Central  Powers  was 
once  more  raised  and  this  horrible  war  was  once 
more  prolonged.  This  could  not  have  happened 
if  there  had  been  some  central  authority  whose 
responsibility  was  to  think  out  the  problem  of 
war  for  the  whole  battlefield.  But  once  again 
France  and  England  had  the  whole  of  their 
strength  engaged  in  the  bloody  assaults  of  the 
Somme,  Italy  was  fighting  for  her  life  on  the 
Carso,  Russia  was  engaged  in  the  Carpathians, 
and  there  was  no  authority  whose  concern  it  was 
to  prepare  measures  in  advance  for  averting  the 
doom  of  Rumania. 

I  you  want  to  appreciate  thoroughly  how  we 
were  waging  four  wars  and  not  one,  I  will  give 
you  one  fact  to  reflect  upon.  In  1916  we  had  the 
same  Conference  in  Paris  and  the  same  appear- 
ance of  preparing  one  great  strategic  plan.  But 
when  the  military  power  of  Russia  collapsed  in 
March,  what  took  place?  If  Europe  had  been 
treated  as  one  battlefield  you  might  have  thought 
that  when  it  was  clear  that  a  great  army  which 
was  operating  on  one  flank  could  not  come  up  in 


MILITARY  EFFORT  225 

time,  or  even  come  into  action  at  all,  there  would 
have  been  a  change  in  stratec:}'.  Not  in  the  loast. 
Their  plans  proceeded  exactly  as  if  nothing  had 
occurred  in  Russia.  Why?  Because  their  plans 
were  essentially  independent  of  each  other  and 
not  part  of  a  strategic  whole.  You  will  forgive 
me  for  talking  quite  plainly  because  this  is  no 
time  for  concealing  or  for  glossing  over  facts. 
Was  is  pre-eminently  a  game  where  realities 
count.  This  is  1917.  What  has  happened?  I  wish 
there  had  even  been  some  variety  in  the  character 
of  the  tragedy.  But  there  has  been  the  same  dis- 
aster due  to  the  same  cause.  Russia  collapsed. 
Italy  w^as  menaced.  The  business  of  Russia  is  to 
look  after  her  own  front.  It  is  the  concern  of 
Italy  to  look  after  her  OAvn  war.  ''Am  I  my 
brother's  keeper?"  Disastrous!  Fatal!  The 
Italian  front  is  just  as  important  to  France  and 
Britain  as  it  was  to  Germany.  Germany  under- 
stood that  in  time.     Unfortunately  we  did  not. 

It  is  no  use  minimising  the  extent  of  the  dis- 
aster. If  you  do,  then  you  will  never  take  ade- 
quate steps  to  repair  it.  When  we  advance  a 
kilometre  into  the  enemy's  lines,  snatch  a  small 
shattered  village  out  of  his  cruel  grip,  capture 
a  few  hundreds  of  his  soldiers,  we  shout  with  un- 
feigned joy.  And  rightly  so,  for  it  is  the  s^nnbol 
of  our  superiority  over  a  boastful  foe  and  a  sure 
guarantee  that  in  the  end  we  can  and  shall  win. 

But  w^hat  if  we  had  advanced  fifty  kilometres 
beyond  his  lines  and  made  200,000  of  his  soldiers 
prisoners  and  taken  2,500  of  his  best  guns,  with 


226  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

enormous  quantities  of  ammunition  and  stores? 
What  print  would  we  have  for  our  headlines? 
Have  you  an  idea  how  long  it  would  take  the 
arsenals  of  France  and  Great  Britain  to  manu- 
facture 2,500  guns? 

At  this  moment  the  extent  to  which  we  can  pre- 
vent this  defeat  from  developing  into  a  catas- 
trophe depends  upon  the  promptitude  and  com- 
pleteness with  which  we  break  with  our  past  and 
for  the  first  time  realise  in  action  the  essential 
unity  of  all  the  Allied  fronts.  I  believe  that  we 
have  at  last  learned  this  great  lesson.  That  is 
the  meaning  of  this  Superior  Council.  If  I  am 
right  in  my  conjectures  then  tliis  Council  will  be 
given  real  power,  the  efforts  of  the  Allies  will  be 
co-ordinated,  and  victory  will  await  valour.  We 
shall  then  live  to  bless  even  the  Italian  di§,aster, 
for  without  it  I  do  not  believe  it  would  have  been 
possible  to  secure  real  unity.  Prejudices  and  sus- 
picions would  have  kept  us  apart.  Had  we  learned 
this  lesson  even  three  months  ago  what  a  differ- 
ence it  would  have  made ! 

I  must  read  to  you  a  message  which  appeared 
in  The  Times  three  days  ago  from  its  Washing- 
ton Correspondent.  It  is  a  message  of  the  first 
importance,  for,  in  the  words  of  an  old  English 
saying,  "Outsiders  see  most  of  the  game."  And 
these  shrewd  men  in  America,  calmly  observing 
the  course  of  events  from  a  distance  of  thou- 
sands of  miles,  have  come  to  conclusions  which  we 
would  have  done  well  to  make  ours  years  ago : — 


MILITARY  EFFORT  227 

**It  is  realised  here  that  delicate  questions  of 
prestige  exist  between  the  great  European  nations 
engaged  in  the  war,  and  that  this  militates  against 
quick  decisions  and  effective  action  when  these  are 
most  needed.  It  is  believed  by  some  of  President 
Wilson's  closest  advisers  that  Germany  owes 
much  of  her  success  in  this  Avar  to  her  unity  of 
control,  which  permits  the  full  direction  of  all 
Teutonic  efforts  from  Berlin.  Indeed,  it  is  felt 
here  that  unless  the  Allies  can  achieve  a  degree 
of  co-ordination  equal  to  that  which  has  enabled 
Germany  to  score  her  striking,  though  perhaps 
ineffectual  successes,  she  will  be  able  to  hold  out 
far  longer  than  otherwise  would  have  been  be- 
lieved possible.  American  military  experts  be- 
lieve that  if  the  Allied  help  rushed  to  General 
Cadoma's  assistance  to  stem  the  tide  of  invasion 
had  been  thrown  into  the  balance  when  Italy's 
forces  were  within  forty  miles  of  Laibach,  the 
Allies  would  have  been  able  to  force  the  road  to 
Vienna.  Victory  at  Laibach  would  have  spelled  a 
new  Austerlitz,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  prize 
almost  within  his  grasp  is  believed  here  to  have 
justified  General  Cadoma  in  taking  the  risk  of 
advancing  his  centre  too  far  and  temporarily 
weakening  his  left  flanjk:.  The  lack  of  co-operation 
between  France,  Great  Britain,  and  Italy  is 
blamed  here  for  the  disaster  which  ensued,  and 
which  it  is  believed  would  not  have  occurred  if 
one  supreme  military  authority  had  directed  the 
combined  operations  of  the  Allies  with  the  sole 
aim  of  victory  without  regard  to  any  other  con- 
siderations.'* 

You  may  say  the  American  estimate  of  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  Italian  front  for  the  Allies  is  too 
favourable.    Why?    It  is  not  for  me  to  express  an 


THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

opinion.  I  am  but  a  civilian ;  but  I  am  entitled  to 
point  out  that  the  Austrian  Army  is  certainly  not 
better  than  the  Italian.  On  the  contrary,  when- 
ever there  was  a  straight  fight  between  the  Italians 
and  the  Austrians  the  former  invariably  won. 
And  the  Germans  are  certainly  no  better  than  the 
British  and  French  troops.  When  there  has  been 
a  straight  fight  between  them  we  have  invariably 
defeated  their  best  and  most  vaunted  regiments. 
And  as  for  the  difficulties  of  getting  there,  what 
we  have  already  accomplished  in  the  course  of 
the  last  few  days  is  the  best  answer  to  that. 

But  now  I  will  answer  the  other  question — 
"Why  was  this  not  said  before  and  why  was  this 
not  done  before?  I  have  said  it  before,  and  I 
have  tried  to  do  it  before,  and  so  have  some  of 
my  French  colleagues  that  I  see  here.  For  weeks, 
for  months,  for  years,  at  committees,  at  confer- 
ences, at  consultations,  until  I  almost  became 
weary  of  the  attempt.  I  have  written  it  where  it 
may  be  read  and  will  be  read  when  the  time  comes. 
I  should  like  to  be  able  to  read  you  the  statement 
submitted  to  the  conference  in  Rome  in  January 
about  the  perils  and  possibilities  of  the  Italian 
front  this  year,  so  that  you  might  judge  it  in  the 
light  of  subsequent  events.  I  feel  confident  that 
nothing  could  more  convincingly  demonstrate  the 
opportunities  which  the  Allies  have  lost  through 
lack  of  combined  thought  and  action. 

We  have  latterly  sought  strenuously  to  improve 
matters  by  more  frequent  conferences  and  consul- 
tations, and  there  is  no  doubt  that  substantial 


MILITARY  EFFORT 

improvement  has  been  effected.  As  the  result  of 
that  conference  in  Rome  and  the  Subsequent  con- 
sultations, arrangements  were  made  which  short- 
ened considerablj'^  the  period  within  which  aid 
could  be  given  to  Italy  in  the  event  of  her  being 
attacked.  And  if  the  tragedies  of  Serbia  and  Ru- 
mania are  not  to  be  repeated — and  I  feel  assured 
that  they  will  not,  in  spite  of  the  very  untoward 
circumstances — it  will  be  because  the  preparations 
made  as  the  result  of  the  Rome  Conference  have 
materially  affected  the  situation.  But  if  there  had 
been  real  co-ordination  of  the  military  efforts  of 
the  Allies  we  should  now  have  been  engaged  in 
Italy  not  in  averting  disaster  from  our  Allies,  but 
in  inflicting  disaster  upon  our  enemies.  That  is 
why  we  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  for  the 
cumbrous  and  clumsy  machinery  of  conferences 
there  shall  be  substituted  a  permanent  council 
whose  duty  it  will  be  to  survey  the  whole  field  of 
military  endeavour  with  a  view  to  determining 
where  and  how  the  resources  of  the  Allies  can  be 
most  effectually  employed.  Personally  I  had  made 
up  my  mind  that,  unless  some  change  were  ef- 
fected, I  could  no  longer  remain  responsible  for 
a  war  direction  doomed  to  disaster  for  lack  of 
unity. 

The  Italian  disaster  may  yet  save  the  alliance, 
for  without  it  I  do  not  believe  that  even  now  we 
should  have  set  up  a  real  Council.  National  and 
professional  traditions,  prestige,  and  susceptibili- 
ties aU  conspired  to  render  nugatory  our  best 
resolutions.     There  was  no  one  in  particular  to 


230  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

blame.  It  was  an  inherent  difficulty  in  getting  so 
many  independent  nations,  so  many  independent 
organisations,  to  merge  all  their  individual  idio- 
syncrasies and  to  act  together  as  if  they  were  one 
people.  Now  that  we  have  set  up  this  Council 
our  business  is  to  see  that  the  unity  which  it  repre- 
sents is  a  fact  and  not  a  fraud. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  have  spoken  to-day 
^vith  perhaps  brutal  frankness,  at  the  risk  of  much 
misconception  here  and  elsewhere,  and  perhaps 
at  some  risk  of  giving  temporary  encouragement 
to  the  foe.  This  Council  has  been  set  up.  It  has 
started  its  work.  But  particularism  will  again  re- 
assert itself,  because  it  represents  permanent 
forces  deeply  entrenched  in  every  political  and 
military  organisation.  And  it  is  only  by  means 
of  public  opinion  awakened  to  real  danger  that 
you  can  keep  these  narrow  instincts  and  interests, 
with  the  narrow  vision  and  outlook  which  they  in- 
volve, from  reasserting  their  dominance  and  once 
more  plunging  us  into  the  course  of  action  which 
produced  the  tragedies  of  Serbia  and  Rumania 
and  has  very  nearly  produced  an  even  deeper  trag- 
edy for  Italy.  The  war  has  been  prolonged  by 
sectionalism;  it  will  be  shortened  by  solidarity. 

If  this  effort  at  achieving  solidarity  is  made  a 
reality,  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  issue  of  the  war. 
The  weight  of  men,  material,  and  moral,  with  all 
its  meaning,  is  on  our  side.  I  say  so,  whatever 
may  happen  to,  or  in,  Russia.  I  am  not  one  of 
those  who  despair  of  Russia.  A  Revolutionary 
Russia  can  never  be  anything  but  a  menace  to 


MILITARY  EFFORT  231 

Holienzollernism.  But  even  if  I  were  in  despair 
of  Russia,  my  faith  in  tlie  ultimate  triumph  of 
the  Allied  cause  would  remain  unshaken.  The 
tried  democracies  of  France,  Great  Britain,  and 
Italy,  with  the  aid  of  the  mighty  democracy  of  the 
West,  must  win  in  the  end.  Autocracy  ma}^  be 
better  for  swift  striking,  but  Freedom  is  the  best 
stayer.  We  shall  win,  but  I  want  to  win  as  soon 
as  possible.  I  want  to  win  with  as  little  sacrifice 
as  possible.  I  want  as  many  as  possible  of  that 
splendid  young  manhood  which  has  helped  to  win 
victory  to  live  through  to  enjoy  its  fruits. 

Unity — not  sham  unity,  but  real  unity — is  the 
only  sure  pathway  to  victory.  The  magnitude  of 
the  sacrifices  made  by  the  people  of  all  the  Al- 
lied countries  ought  to  impel  us  to  suppress  all 
minor  appeals  in  order  to  attain  the  common  pur- 
pose of  all  this  sacrifice.  All  personal,  all  sec- 
tional, considerations  should  be  relentlessly  sup- 
pressed. This  is  one  of  the  greatest  hours  in  the 
history  of  mankind.  Let  us  not  dishonour  great- 
ness with  pettiness. 

I  have  just  returned  from  Italy,  where  I  saw 
your  fine  troops  marching  cheerily  to  face  their 
ancient  foes,  marching  past  battlefields  where  men 
of  their  race  once  upon  a  time  wrought  deeds 
which  now  constitute  part  of  the  romance  of  this 
old  world — Areola,  Lodi,  Marengo.  We  met  the 
King  of  Italy  on  the  battlefield  of  Solferino,  and 
we  there  again  saw  French  soldiers  pass  on  to 
defend  the  freedom  wliich  their  fathers  helped  to 
win  with  their  blood.    When  I  saw  them  in  such 


232  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

environment  I  thought  that  France  has  a  greater 
gift  for  sacrificing  herself  for  human  liberty  than 
any  nation  in  the  world.  And  as  I  reflected  on  the 
sacrifices  she  had  made  in  this  war  for  freedom 
of  mankind  I  had  a  sob  in  my  heart.  You  as- 
sembled here  to-day  must  be  proud  that  you  have 
been  called  to  be  leaders  of  so  great  a  people  at  so 
great  an  hour.  And  as  one  who  sincerely  loves 
France,  you  will  forgive  me  for  saying  that  I 
know  that,  in  the  discharge  of  your  trust,  you  will 
in  all  things  seek  to  be  worthy  of  so  glorious  a 
land. 


"NO  HALFWAY  HOUSE." 

EXTRACTS  FROM   A   SPEECH   DELIVERED   AT   GRAY'S  INN,   DE- 
CEMBER 14th,  1917. 


The  danger  is  not  the  extreme  pacifist.  I  am 
not  afraid  of  him.  But  I  warn  the  nation  to  watch 
the  man  who  thinks  that  there  is  a  halfway  house 
between  victory  and  defeat.  There  is  no  halfway 
house  between  victory  and  defeat.  These  are  the 
men  who  think  that  you  can  end  the  war  now  by 
some  sort  of  what  they  call  pact  of  peace,  by  the 
setting  np  of  a  League  of  Nations  with  conditions 
as  to  arbitration  in  the  event  of  disputes,  with  pro- 
vision for  disarmament,  and  with  a  solemn  cove- 
nant on  the  part  of  all  nations  to  sign  a  treaty 
on  those  lines,  and  not  merely  to  abide  by  it  them- 
selves, but  to  help  to  enforce  it  against  any  na- 
tion that  dares  to  break  it. 

That  is  the  right  policy  after  victory.  "With- 
out victory  it  would  be  a  farce.  Wliy,  we  are 
engaged  in  a  war  because  an  equally  solemn  treaty 
was  treated  as  a  scrap  of  paper.  Who  would 
sign  the  new  treaty?  I  presume,  among  others, 
the  people  who  have  so  far  successfully  broken 
the  last.  W^ho  would  enforce  the  new  treaty?  I 
presume  that  they  would  be  the  nations  that  have 

233 


234  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

so  far  not  quite  succeeded  in  enforcing  the  last. 
To  end  the  war  entered  on,  to  enforce  a  treaty 
without  rejDaration  for  the  infringement  of  that 
treaty,  merely  by  entering  into  a  new,  a  more 
sweeping  and  a  more  comprehensive  treaty,  would 
be,  indeed,  a  farce  in  the  setting  of  a  tragedy. 
We  must  take  care  not  to  be  misled  by  mere  words 
— ''leagTie  of  nations,"  *' disarmament, "  ''arbitra- 
tion, "  "  security. ' '  They  are  all  great  and  blessed 
phrases,  but  without  the  vitalising  force  of  vic- 
tory they  are  nothing  but  words.  You  cannot 
wage  war  with  words.  You  cannot  secure  peace 
with  words.  You  cannot  long  cover  defeat  with 
words.  Unless  there  are  deeds  behind  them,  they 
are  but  dead  leaves  which  the  first  storm  will  scat- 
ter and  reveal  your  strangled  and  abandoned  pur- 
pose to  the  world. 

We  ought  never  to  have  started  unless  we 
meant,  at  all  hazards,  to  complete  our  task.  There 
is  nothing  so  fatal  to  character  as  half-finished 
tasks.  I  can  understand,  although  I  cannot  respect, 
the  attitude  of  the  man — and  there  are  a  few — 
who  said  from  the  first,  ''Do  not  interfere,  what- 
ever happens."  When  you  said  to  them,  "Sup- 
posing the  Prussians  overrun  Belgium?"  their  an- 
swer was,  "Let  them  overrun  Belgium!"  If  you 
said,  "We  promised  solemnly  to  protect  Belgium 
against  all  invaders,  and  we  ought  to  stand  by  our 
word,"  they  replied,  "We  ought  never  to  have 
given  our  word."  If  you  said  to  them,  "What 
if  the  Germans  trample  in  the  mire  our  friends 
and  neighbours,  the  free  Eepublic  of  France?" 


"NO  HALFWAY  HOUSE"  235 

they  answered,  "That  is  not  our  business."  If 
you  asked,  *'What  if  they  murder  innocent  peo- 
ple, old  and  young,  male  and  female,  bum  cities 
and  ravage  and  outrage  before  your  eyes  ? "  in  ef- 
fect they  said,  "Let  them  perpetrate  every  crime 
in  the  calendar  so  long  as  it  is  not  done  in  our 
land.  "What  concern  is  it  of  ours?  Are  we  our 
brothers'  keepers?  Let  us  not  meddle  and  pro- 
voke anger  which  might  disturb  our  serenity  and 
our  comfort."  In  fact,  as  one  leading  journalist 
put  it  with  shameless  candour,  "Let  us  rather 
profit  by  manufacturing  goods  for  both  sides ;  for 
the  assassins  as  well  as  for  the  survivors  among 
our  friends." 

That  is  not  an  exalted  line  to  take,  but  it  is  a 
definite  and  clear  line  of  action,  intelligible  in  con- 
sciences of  a  certain  quality.  "Ourselves  first, 
ourselves  last,  ourselves  all  the  time,  and  our- 
selves alone."  It  is  pretty  mean,  but  there  are  in 
every  country  men  built  that  way,  and  you  must 
reckon  with  them  in  the  world.  But  the  man  I 
cannot  comprehend  is  the  sort  of  man  who,  when 
he  first  saw  these  outrages,  called  out,  his  gener- 
ous soul  aflame  with  righteous  wrath,  "In  the 
name  of  Heaven  let  us  leap  in  and  arrest  this 
infamy,  and  if  we  fail,  then  at  least  let  us  punish 
the  perpetrators  so  as  to  make  it  impossible  for 
it  to  happen  again."  And  having  said  all  this 
and  having  helped  to  commit  the  nation  to  that 
career  of  honour,  now,  before  the  task  is  nearly 
accomplished,  he  suddenly  turns  round  and  says, 
"I  have  had  enough  of  this.    It  is  time  it  should 


236  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

come  to  an  end.  Let  us  shake  hands  with  the  male- 
factor. Let  us  trade  with  him  to  our  mutual  ad- 
vantage. ' ' 

The  Terms  Germany  Offers. 

He  is  not  to  be  asked  for  reparation  for  dam- 
age done.  He  need  not  even  apologise.  He  is 
simply  invited  to  enter  into  a  bargain  to  join  with 
you  in  punching  the  head  of  the  next  man  who 
dares  to  imitate  his  villainies.  And  we  are  told 
that  we  can  have  peace  now  on  these  terms.  Ger- 
many has  said  so,  Austria  has  said  so,  the  Pope 
has  said  so.  It  must,  therefore,  be  true.  Of 
course  it  is  true.  Why  should  they  refuse  peace 
on  such  terms,  especially  as  it  would  leave  them 
with  some  of  the  richest  provinces  and  fairest 
cities  of  Russia  in  their  pockets?  There  are  dis- 
tinguished judges  present.  They  are  often  called 
on  to  administer  justice  for  offences  not  unlike 
those  committed  by  Prussia.  It  is  true  that  rarely 
have  they  had  before  them  a  criminal  who,  in  his 
own  person,  has  committed  all  these  offences — 
murder,  arson,  rape,  burglary,  fraud,  piracy. 
Supposing  next  time  they  try  such  a  case,  and  are 
tired  out  by  the  insistence  of  the  prisoner's  advo- 
cate, they  were  to  turn  to  the  offender  and  say 
''This  is  a  profitless  business.  We  are  wasting  a 
good  deal  of  money  and  valuable  time.  I  am 
weary  of  it.  I  want  to  get  back  to  more  useful 
work.  If  I  let  you  off  now  without  any  punish- 
ment beyond  that  which  is  necessarily  entailed 


"NO  HALFWAY  HOUSE"  237 

in  the  expenses  which  you  have  been  put  to  in  de- 
fending your  honour,  will  you  promise  me  to  help 
the  police  to  catch  the  next  burglar?  If  you 
agree  to  these  teims  I  propose  to  enrol  you  now 
as  a  special  constable.  I  will  now  formally  put 
on  your  armlet,  and,  by  the  way,  if  you  leave  me 
your  address  I  will  promise  to  cement  the  good 
feeling  which  I  wish  to  prevail  in  future  between 
us,  to  deal  at  your  store  without  further  inquiry 
as  to  where,  or  how,  you  got  the  goods.  I  might 
add  that  you  need  not  worry  to  return  the  stuff 
you  stole  from  your  next-door  neighbour  on  your 
right,  as  I  understand  he  has  withdrawn  his  claim 
to  restoration." 

Now,  what  do  you  think  would  be  the  effect  on 
crime  ?  It  is  idle  to  talk  of  security  to  be  won  by 
such  feeble  means.  There  is  no  security  in  any 
land  without  certainty  of  punishment.  There  is 
no  protection  for  life,  property,  or  money  in  a 
State  where  the  criminal  is  more  powerful  than 
the  law.  The  law  of  nations  is  no  exception,  and, 
until  it  has  been  vindicated,  the  peace  of  the  world 
will  always  be  at  the  mercy  of  any  nation  whose 
professors  have  assiduously  taught  it  to  believe 
that  no  crime  is  wrong  so  long  as  it  leads  to  the 
aggrandisement  and  enrichment  of  the  country  to 
which  they  owe  allegiance.  There  have  been  many 
times  in  the  history  of  the  world  criminal  States. 
We  are  dealing  with  one  of  them  now.  And  there 
will  always  be  criminal  States  until  the  reward 
of  international  crime  becomes  too  precarious  to 
make  it  profitable,  and  the  punishment  of  inter- 


238  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

national  crime  becomes  too  sure  to  make  it  attrac- 
tive. 

Victory  Essential  for  Security. 

Let  there  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  alternatives  with 
which  we  are  confronted.  One  of  them  is  to  make 
easy  terms  with  the  triumphant  outlaw,  as  men 
are  driven  to  do  in  order  to  buy  immunity  in  lands 
where  there  is  no  authority  to  enforce  law.  That 
is  one  course.  It  means  abasing  ourselves  in  ter- 
ror before  lawlessness.  It  means,  ultimately,  a 
world  intimidated  by  successful  bandits.  The 
other  is  to  go  through  with  our  divine  task  of 
vindicating  justice,  so  as  to  establish  a  righteous 
and  everlasting  peace  for  ourselves  and  for  our 
children.  Surely  no  nation  with  any  regard  for 
its  interests,  for  its  self-respect,  for  its  honour, 
can  hesitate  a  moment  in  its  choice.  Victory  is 
an  essential  condition  for  the  security  of  a  free 
world.  All  the  same,  intensely  as  I  realise  that, 
if  I  thought  things  would  get  no  better  the  longer 
you  fought,  not  merely  would  there  be  no  object 
in  prolonging  the  war,  but  to  do  so  would  be  in- 
famous. Wantonly  to  sacrifice  brave  lives,  nay, 
to  force  brave  men  to  endure  for  one  profitless 
hour  the  terrible  conditions  of  this  war  merely 
because  statesmen  had  not  the  courage  to  face 
the  obloquy  which  would  be  involved  in  agreeing 
to  an  unsatisfactory  peace,  would  be  a  black  crime 
when  we  remember  what  we  owe  to  these  gallant 
men.  It  is  because  I  am  firmly  convinced  that,  de- 
spite some  untoward  events,  despite  discouraging 


"NO  HALim^AY  HOUSE"  2'ZO 

appearances,  we  are  making  steady  progress  to- 
wards the  goal  we  set  in  front  of  us  in  1914,  that 
I  would  regard  peace  overtures  to  Prussia,  at  the 
very  moment  when  the  Prussian  military  spirit  is 
drunk  with  boastf  illness,  as  a  betrayal  of  the  great 
trust  with  which  my  colleagues  and  I  have  been 
charged. 

"Cmnplete  the  Bridge." 

Much  of  the  progress  we  are  making  may  not  be 
visible  except  to  those  whose  business  it  is  to 
search  out  the  facts.  The  victories  of  Germany 
are  all  blazoned  forth  to  the  world.  Her  troubles 
appear  in  no  Press  communiques  or  wireless  mes- 
sages, but  we  know  something  of  these.  The 
deadly  grip  of  the  British  Navy  is  having  its  ef- 
fect, and  the  valour  of  our  troops  is  making  an 
impression  which  in  the  end  will  tell.  We  are 
laying  surely  the  foundation  of  the  bridge  which, 
when  it  is  complete,  will  carry  us  into  the  new 
world.  The  river  is,  for  the  moment,  in  spate,  and 
some  of  the  scaffolding  has  been  carried  away, 
and  much  of  the  progress  we  had  made  seems 
submerged  and  hidden,  and  there  are  men  who 
say,  "Let  us  abandon  the  enterprise  altogether. 
It  is  too  costly.  It  is  impracticable  of  achieve- 
ment. Let  us  rather  build  a  pontoon  bridge  of 
new  treaties,  league  of  nations,  understandings.'* 
It  might  last  you  some  time.  It  would  always  be 
shaky  and  uncertain.  It  would  not  bear  much 
strain.  It  would  not  carry  heavy  traffic,  and  the 
first  flood  would  sweep  it  away.    Let  us  get  along 


240  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

with  the  pile-driving,  and  make  a  real,  solid,  per- 
manent structure. 


*' Sanity  of  Outlook." 

Meanwhile,  let  us  maintain  our  steadiness  and 
sanity  of  outlook.  There  are  people  who  are  too 
apt  at  one  moment  to  get  unduly  elated  at  victories 
which  are  but  incidents  in  the  great  march  of 
events,  and  the  same  people  get  unwholesomely 
depressed  by  defeats  which,  again,  are  nothing 
more  than  incidents.  The  very  persons  who  within 
the  last  fortnight  have  been  organising  a  nervous 
breakdown  in  the  nation  some  weeks  ago  were  or- 
ganising a  hysterical  shout  over  our  victories  in 
Flanders  and  at  Cambrai.  We  were  breaking 
through  the  enemy's  barrier.  We  were  rolling  up 
the  German  armies  and  clearing  them  out  of  Bel- 
gium and  the  North  of  France.  They  remind  me 
of  a  clock  I  used  to  pass  at  one  time  in  my  life 
almost  every  day.  It  worried  me  a  great  deal, 
for  whatever  the  time  of  the  day  the  finger  al- 
ways pointed  at  12  o'clock.  If  you  trusted  that 
clock  you  would  have  believed  it  was  either  noon 
or  midnight.  There  are  people  of  that  type  in 
this  war  who  one  moment  point  to  the  high  noon 
of  triumph  and  the  next  to  the  black  midnight  of 
defeat  or  despair.  There  is  no  twilight.  There  is 
no  morning.  They  can  claim  a  certain  consistency, 
for  they  are  always  at  12,  but  you  will  find  that 
their  mainspring  in  this  war  is  out  of  repair.  We 
must  go  through  all  the  hours,  minute  by  minute. 


"NO  HALFWAY  HOUSE"  241 

second  by  second,  with  a  steady  swing,  and  the 
hour  of  the  dawn  will  in  due  time  strike. 


The  Bussian  Collapse. 

This  is  not  the  most  propitious  hour.  Russia 
threatens  to  retire  out  of  the  war  and  leave  the 
French  democracy,  whose  loyalty  to  the  word 
they  passed  to  Russia  brought  on  them  the  hor- 
rors of  this  war,  to  shift  for  themselves.  I  do 
not  wish  to  minimise  in  the  least  the  gravity  of 
this  decision.  Had  Russia  been  in  a  condition  to 
exert  her  strength  this  year,  we  might  now  be  in 
a  position  to  impose  fair  and  rational  terms  of 
peace.  By  her  retirement  she  threatens  Hohen- 
zollernism  and  weakens  the  forces  of  democracy. 
Her  action  will  not  lead,  as  she  imagines,  to  uni- 
versal peace.  It  will  simply  prolong  the  agony 
of  the  world,  and  it  will  inevitably  put  her  in 
bondage  to  the  military  dominance  of  Prussia. 
But  if  Russia  persists  in  her  present  policy,  then 
the  withdrawal  from  the  Eastern  flank  of  the  en- 
emy of  forces  which  have  hitherto  absorbed  over 
a  third  of  his  strength  must  release  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  his  troops  and  masses  of  material 
to  attack  Britain,  France,  and  Italy.  It  is  a  seri- 
ous addition  to  our  task,  which  Avas  already  for- 
midable enough.  It  would  be  folly  to  underrate 
the  danger.  It  would  be  equally  folly,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  exaggerate  it.  The  greatest  folly  of  all 
would  be  not  to  face  it. 


M2  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

America. 

If  the  Russian  democracy  have  decided  to  aban- 
don the  struggle  against  military  autocracy,  the 
American  democracy  are  taking  it  up.  This  is  the 
most  momentous  fact  of  the  year.  It  has  trans- 
posed the  whole  situation.  The  Russians  are  a 
great-hearted  people,  and  valiantly  have  they 
fought  in  this  war,  but  they  have  always  been — 
certainly  throughout  this  war — the  worst  organ- 
ised State  in  Europe,  and  Britain,  with  but  a  third 
of  the  population  of  Russia,  has  been,  for  the  last 
two  years,  a  more  formidable  military  obstacle  to 
Germany.  Had  you  asked  Germany,  not  now,  but 
even  a  year  ago,  which  country  she  would  prefer 
to  see  out  of  the  war,  I  do  not  think  that  there 
would  have  been  any  doubt  about  her  answer.  But 
what  about  America?  There  is  no  more  powerful 
country  in  the  world  than  the  United  States  of 
America,  with  their  gigantic  resources  and  their 
indomitable  people.  And  if  Russia  is  out,  Amer- 
ica is  coming  in  with  both  arms.  If  this  is  the 
worst  moment,  it  is  because  Russia  has  stepped 
out  and  America  is  only  preparing  to  come  in. 
Her  army  is  not  ready.  Her  equipment  is  not 
complete,  her  tonnage  has  not  been  built.  Every 
hour  that  passes,  the  gap  formed  by  the  retire- 
ment of  the  Russians  will  be  filled  by  the  valiant 
sons  of  the  great  American  Republic.  Soon  it  will 
be  more  than  filled.  Germany  knows  it.  Austria 
knows  it.    Hence  the  desperate  efforts  which  they 


"NO  HALFWAY  HOUSE"  243 

are  making  to  force  the  issue  before  America  is 
ready.    They  will  not  succeed. 

Greater  Efforts  and  Greater  Sacrifices. 

All  the  same,  these  two  unfortunate  circum- 
stances— the  collapse  of  Russia  and  the  tempo- 
rary defeat  of  Italy — undoubtedly  cast  on  us  a 
heavier  share  of  the  burden  until  the  strength  of 
Ajnerica  is  ready  to  come  underneath  to  share  it. 
We  must,  therefore,  be  prepared  for  greater  ef- 
forts, for  greater  sacrifices.  It  is  not  the  time  to 
cower,  to  falter,  or  to  hesitate.  It  is  the  time  for 
the  nation  to  plant  its  feet  more  firmly  than  ever 
on  the  ground  and  to  square  its  shoulders  to  bear 
the  increased  weight  cast  on  it  by  events. 

When  I  talk  of  the  nation  I  do  not  mean  the 
nation  in  the  abstract,  but  the  millions  of  individ- 
uals who  constitute  the  nation.  If  we  are  to  win 
the  security  which  it  is  the  common  purpose  of  all 
sections  to  attain,  every  man  and  every  woman 
must  be  prepared  for  greater  endeavours  and 
greater  sacrifices.  A  friend  of  mine,  speaking  the 
other  day,  said  that  there  was  not  the  enthusiasm 
observable  which  characterised  the  early  days  of 
the  war.  That  may  be  so.  If  a  man  undertakes 
a  long,  arduous  and  perilous  journey  you  do  not 
expect  him  in  the  fatiguing  hours  of  the  afternoon 
to  exhibit  the  same  ardour  as  when  he  started  in 
the  freshness  of  the  morning.  But  although  he 
may  not  display  the  same  keenness  in  his  demean- 
our, if  he  is  a  man  of  any  purpose,  his  ardour  may 


244  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

be  less,  but  his  resolution  is  greater.  There  is  a 
hot  zeal  and  a  cold  zeal,  and  the  greatest  things 
of  the  world  have  been  accomplished  by  the  lat- 
ter. The  will  of  Britain  is  as  tempered  steel. 
There  is  no  sign  of  a  break  in  it,  and,  although 
the  pressure  may  increase  and  will  increase,  I 
have  never  doubted  that  it  will  bear  it  all  right 
to  the  end. 


Man-Power  and  Tonnage. 

We  shall  have  to  call  on  the  nation  for  further 
effort,  for  further  sacrifice,  but  we  shall  only  do 
so  because  it  is  absolutely  necessary  now.  Pre- 
mature sacrifice  is  waste  of  moral.  There  must 
be  a  further  drain  on  our  man-power  to  sustain, 
until  the  American  Army  arrives,  the  additional 
hurden  cast  on  us  by  the  defection  of  Russia  and 
the  reverses  in  Italy.  We  must  have  enough  men 
to  defend  the  lines  which  we  have  held  against 
fierce  onsets  for  three  years,  and  to  defend  them 
against  all  comers  from  any  quarter  of  the  enemy 
front.  We  must  also  have  an  army  of  manoeuvre 
which  will  enable  us  to  appear  with  the  least  delay 
at  any  point  of  emergency  in  any  part  of  the  colos- 
sal battlefield.  There  is  no  ground  for  panic. 
Even  now,  after  we  have  sent  troops  to  the  assist- 
ance of  Italy,  the  Allies  have  a  marked  superior- 
ity of  numbers  in  France  and  Flanders,  and  we 
have  considerable  reserves  at  home.  Much  greater 
progress  has  been  made  in  man-power,  especially 
during  the  last  few  months,  than  either  friends  or 


"NO  HALFWAY  HOUSE"  245 

foes  realise,  but  it  is  not  enough  to  enable  us  to 
face  new  contingencies  without  anxiety  unless  we 
take  further  steps  to  increase  our  reserves  of 
trained  men. 

Before  I  leave  this  branch  of  the  subject  I  must, 
however,  add  another  important  consideration. 
While  the  Cabinet  are  prepared  with  recommen- 
dations for  raising  more  men,  they  are  conduct- 
ing a  searching  investigation,  with  the  assistance 
of  our  military  advisers,  into  the  best  methods  of 
husbanding  the  man-power  already  existing  in 
our  Armies,  so  as  to  reduce  the  terrible  wastage 
of  war. 

But  the  problem  of  man-power  does  not  end 
with  the  provision  of  men  for  the  Armies.  It  is 
not  even  the  most  urgent  part  of  the  problem. 
We  need  more  men,  not  merely  for  the  battle  line 
across  the  seas,  but  for  the  battle  line  in  this  coun- 
try. We  especially  need  men  to  help  us  to  solve 
the  problems  associated  with  tonnage.  You  can 
increase  tonnage  in  two  ways — by  building  ton- 
nage and  by  saving  tonnage.  Victory  is  now  a 
question  of  tonnage,  and  tonnage  is  victory.  Noth- 
ing else  can  defeat  us  now  but  shortage  of  ton- 
nage. The  advent  of  the  United  States  into  the 
war  has  increased  the  demand  enormously.  Ton- 
nage must  be  provided  for  the  transportation  of 
that  gigantic  new  army  with  its  equipment  across 
thousands  of  miles  of  sea.  It  is  no  use  raising 
ten  million  men  and  equipping  them  unless  you 
get  them  somewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  the  foe. 
Germany  has  gambled  on  America's  failure  to 


M6  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

transport  lier  army  to  Europe,  and  that  is  why 
she  is  still  laughing  at  the  colossal  figures  of  sol- 
diers in  training  and  aeroplanes  in  course  of  con- 
struction. We  know  that  the  Prussian  war  lords 
have  promised  their  own  people,  have  promised 
their  allies  that  these  formidable  masses  will  never 
find  their  way  into  the  battle  line,  and  that  Presi- 
dent Wilson's  speeches,  M.  Clemenceau's  speeches, 
and  my  speeches  will  thus  be  added  to  the  vast 
collection  of  unredeemed  rhetoric  with  which,  ac- 
cording to  them,  democracies  have  always  deluded 
themselves. 

The  Prussian  claim  is  that  autocracy  alone  can 
do  things,  and  that  democracies  can  only  talk  of 
doing  things.  The  honour  of  democracy  is  at 
stake.  I  have  no  doubt  that  here,  as  in  many  other 
respects,  those  who  trust  the  Prussian  will  be  dis- 
illusioned; but  both  America  and  ourselves  will 
have  to  strain  our  resources  to  the  utmost  to  in- 
crease tlie  tonnage  available.  The  fact  that  Amer- 
ican tonnage  will  be  absorbed  in  the  transport  of 
their  own  armies  makes  it  necessary  that  we 
should  increase  our  responsibilities  in  the  matter 
of  assisting  our  French  and  our  Italian  Allies  to 
transport  essential  commodities  to  their  shores. 
We  must,  therefore,  increase  our  tonnage.  In  spite 
of  the  fact  that  we  have  had  less  labour  available 
in  this,  the  fourth,  year  of  the  war  than  we  have 
ever  had  before,  we  have  increased  the  shipbuild- 
ing of  war  and  merchant  vessels  beyond  the  rec- 
ord of  any  other  war  years ;  and,  as  Sir  Eric  Ged- 
des  stated  in  the  House  of  Commons,  we  are  now 


"NO  HALFWAY  HOUSE"  247 

turning  out  ships  at  a  rate  which  is  above  that  of 
the  record  year  of  shipbuilding  in  the  days  of 
peace. 

But  we  must  do  more.  As  the  whole  future  of 
this  country  and  of  the  world  depends  on  the  ef- 
forts Britain  and  America  make  this  next  year  to 
increase  the  output  of  ships,  we  are  resolved  that 
it  must,  and  shall,  be  done.  But  we  must  have 
men ;  and  to  have  men  we  must  interfere,  even  to 
a  greater  extent  than  we  have  done  already,  with 
the  industries  which  are  not  absolutely  essential 
for  the  prosecution  of  the  war  or  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  life  of  the  nation.  And,  however 
great  the  hardships  that  may  be  inflicted  by  this 
interference  on  the  particular  trades  involved,  we 
must  ask  the  nation  to  support  us.  And  I  feel  cer- 
tain that  the  trades  themselves  will  show  that  pa- 
triotism which  has  characterised  every  section  of 
the  community  in  this  great  national  endeavour. 

I  would  only  add  one  further  word  about  ship- 
ping". As  I  have  already  pointed  out,  you  can  in- 
crease tonnage  in  two  ways — by  building  tonnage 
and  by  saving  tonnage.  I  have  dealt  with  the  first. 
I  will  say  a  word  about  the  second.  You  save  ton- 
nage by  economising — economising  in  food,  econo- 
mising in  dress.  You  save  tonnage  by  increasing 
the  production  in  this  country  of  material  for- 
merly imported  from  abroad — food,  timber,  min- 
erals. All  this  involves  additional  labour.  As  to 
food,  this  year  we  increased  the  home  production 
by  two  or  three  million  tons.  We  are  the  only 
belligerents  who  have  succeeded  in  increasing  our 


248  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

food  output  during  the  war,  and  great  credit  is  due 
to  those  who  by  a  superb  feat  of  organisation  and 
inspiration,  have  achieved  this  result.  But  it  is 
essential  that  we  should  still  further  increase  the 
home  supplies.  We  must  save  another  three  mil- 
lion tons  in  our  food  imports  next  year.  This 
means  that  all  those  who  have  land,  either  as  own- 
ers or  cultivators,  must  help  us,  must  without  de- 
lay show  their  readiness  to  fall  in  with  plans  for 
increasing  the  produce  of  the  land.  "We  shall  do 
our  best  to  provide  the  necessary  labour  and  ma- 
chinery, and  I  am  confident  that  we  shall  succeed. 
But  all  prejudices,  all  predilections,  must  be  swept 
aside.  The  nation  must  be  saved.  Victory  must 
come  first.  Two  or  three  million  tons  more  food 
raised  in  this  country  means  two  or  three  million 
tons  of  shipping  made  available  for  strengthening 
the  armies  in  the  field.  Every  ton  of  food  which 
you  produce  or  save  in  this  country  is  an  increased 
weight  hurled  against  the  Pnissian  barrier. 

"Carry  It  Through." 

The  nation  can  help  by  giving  up  the  things 
which  are  not  essential  to  victory.  We  must  strip 
even  barer  for  the  fight.  The  nation  can  help 
in  another  way — by  discouraging  ''grousers." 
''Grousing"  undermines  morale  and  when  it  is  a 
question  of  holding  out,  the  national  moral  is  vital. 
You  cannot  expect  things  to  go  on  smoothly  in  war 
as  they  do  in  peace.  You  can  realise  how  much 
the  ordinary  life  of  the  nation  has  been  disturbed 


"NO  HALFWAY  HOUSE"  249 

by  the  simple  transposition  of  the  figures  of  our 
War  Budget  into  terms  of  the  amount  of  national 
energy  which  its  huge  sums  are  intended  to  pur- 
chase. You  cannot  take  millions  of  men  away  from 
the  tasks  of  supplying  the  peace  needs  of  the 
community  without  seriously  interfering  with  the 
comforts  and  amenities  of  the  life  of  that  com- 
munity. The  wonder  is  that  the  disturbance  has 
not  been  greater,  and  I  feel  that  we  owe  much 
gratitude  to  the  experienced  and  able  business 
men  who,  in  various  directions,  have  undertaken 
to  organise  the  resources  of  the  State  for  war,  for 
the  services  which  they  have  rendered  not  merely 
in  increasing  our  efficiency  for  war,  but  in  mini- 
mising the  evils  and  inconveniences  of  war. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  although  our  im- 
ports have  enormously  diminished,  there  is  less 
hunger  in  the  land  to-day  than  in  August,  1914. 
I  ask  you  to  help  these  men  and  not  to  ''rattle" 
them.  The  strain  on  them  is  enormous.  Make 
their  task  easier.  There  are  some  people  engaged 
in  a  constant  and  systematic  grumble.  The  peace 
propaganda  is  fed  with  grumbles.  These  people 
are  anxious  to  break  down  the  national  nerve  and 
then  to  rush  us  into  a  premature  and  disastrous 
peace.  Let  us  beware  of  playing  their  game.  We 
bave  challenged  a  sinister  power  which  is  menac- 
ing the  world  with  enslavement.  It  would  have 
been  better  never  to  have  issued  the  challenge  un- 
less we  meant  to  carry  it  through.  A  challenged 
power  which  is  not  overthrown  always  becomes 
stronger  for  the  challenge.    The  people  who  think 


250  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

that  they  can  begin  a  new  era  of  peace  while  the 
Prussian  militaiy  power  is  unbeaten  are  labour- 
ing under  a  strange  delusion.  We  have  all  been 
dreaming  of  a  new  world  to  appear  when  the  del- 
uge of  war  has  subsided.  Unless  we  achieve  vic- 
tory for  the  great  cause  for  which  we  entered  this 
war  the  new  world  will  simply  be  the  old  world 
with  the  heart  out  of  it. 

The  old  world,  at  least,  believed  in  ideals.  It 
believed  that  justice,  fair  play,  liberty,  righteous- 
ness must  triumph  in  the  end;  that  is,  however 
you  interpret  the  phrase,  the  old  world  believed  in 
God,  and  it  staked  its  existence  on  that  belief. 
Millions  of  gallant  young  men  volunteered  to  die 
for  that  divine  faith.  But  if  wrong  emerged  tri- 
umphant out  of  this  conflict,  the  new  world  would 
feel  in  its  soul  that  brute  force  alone  counted  in 
the  government  of  man;  and  the  hopelessness  of 
the  dark  ages  would  once  more  fall  on  the  earth 
like  a  cloud.  To  redeem  Britain,  to  redeem  Eu- 
rope, to  redeem  the  world  from  this  doom  must  be 
the  settled  purpose  of  every  man  and  woman  who 
places  duty  above  ease.  This  is  the  fateful  hour 
of  mankind.  If  we  are  worthy  of  the  destiny  with 
which  it  is  charged,  untold  generations  of  men  will 
thank  God  for  the  strength  which  He  gave  us  to 
endure  to  the  end. 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  THE  ALLIES. 

SPEECH   DELIVERED  TO  DELEGATES   OF  TIIE  TRADES  UNIONS, 
AT  THE  CENTR.UJ  HALL,  WESTMINSTER,  JANUARY  5tH,  1918. 

When  the  Govemment  invite  organised  Labour 
in  this  country  to  assist  them  to  maintain  the 
might  of  their  armies  in  the  field,  its  representa- 
tives are  entitled  to  ask  that  any  misgivings  and 
doubts  which  any  of  them  may  have  about  the  pur- 
pose to  which  this  precious  strength  is  to  be  ap- 
plied should  be  definitely  cleared,  and  what  is  true 
of  organised  labour  is  equally  true  of  all  citizens 
in  this  country  without  regard  to  grade  or  avo- 
cation. 

When  men  by  the  million  are  being  called  upon 
to  suffer  and  die  and  vast  populations  are  being 
subjected  to  the  sufferings  and  privations  of  war 
on  a  scale  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  they  are  entitled  to  know  for  what  cause  or 
causes  they  are  making  the  sacrifice.  It  is  only 
the  clearest,  greatest,  and  justest  of  causes  that 
can  justify  the  continuance  even  for  one  day  of 
this  unspeakable  agony  of  the  nations.  And  we 
ought  to  be  able  to  state  clearly  and  definitely  not 
only  the  principles  for  which  we  are  fighting,  but 
also  their  definite  and  concrete  application  to  the 
war  map  of  the  world. 

We  have  arrived  at  the  most  critical  hour  in  this 

251 


252  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

terrible  conflict,  and  before  any  Government  takes 
the  fateful  decision  as  to  the  conditions  under 
which  it  ought  either  to  terminate  or  continue  the 
struggle,  it  ought  to  be  satisfied  that  the  con- 
science of  the  nation  is  behind  these  conditions, 
for  nothing  else  can  sustain  the  effort  which  is 
necessary  to  achieve  a  righteous  end  to  this  war. 
I  have  therefore  during  the  last  few  days  taken 
special  pains  to  ascertain  the  view  and  the  attitude 
of  representative  men  of  all  sections  of  thought 
and  opinion  in  the  country.  Last  week  I  had  the 
privilege  not  merely  of  perusing  the  declared  war 
aims  of  the  Labour  Party,  but  also  of  discussing 
in  detail  with  the  Labour  leaders  the  meaning  and 
intention  of  that  declaration.  I  have  also  had  an 
opportunity  of  discussing  this  same  momentous 
question  with  Mr.  Asquith  and  Viscount  Grey. 
Had  it  not  been  that  the  Nationalist  leaders  are  in 
Ireland  enga^ged  in  endeavouring  to  solve  the 
tangled  problem  of  Irish  self-government,  I  should 
have  been  happy  to  exchange  views  with  them,  but 
Mr.  Redmond,  speaking  on  their  behalf,  has,  with 
his  usual  lucidity  and  force,  in  many  of  his 
speeches,  made  clear  what  his  ideas  are  as  to  the 
object  and  purpose  of  the  war.  I  have  also  had 
the  opportunity  of  consulting  certain  representa- 
tives of  the  great  Dominions  overseas. 

I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say  as  a  result  of  all 
these  discussions  that  although  the  Government 
are  alone  responsible  for  the  actual  language  I 
propose  using,  there  is  national  agreement  as  to 
the  character  and  purpose  of  our  war  aims  and 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  THE  ALLIES      i253 

peace  conditions,  and  in  what  I  say  to  you  to-day, 
and  through  you  to  the  world,  I  can  venture  to 
claim  that  I  am  speaking  not  merely  the  mind  of 
the  Government,  but  of  the  nation  and  of  the  Em- 
pire as  a  whole. 

What  We  Are  Not  Fighting  For. 

We  may  begin  by  clearing  away  some  misunder- 
standings and  stating  what  we  are  not  fighting 
for.  We  are  not  fighting  a  war  of  aggression 
against  the  German  people.  Their  leaders  have 
persuaded  them  that  they  are  fighting  a  war  of 
self-defence  against  a  league  of  rival  nations  bent 
on  the  destruction  of  Germany.  That  is  not  so.  The 
destmction  or  disruption  of  Germany  or  the  Ger- 
man people  has  never  been  a  war  aim  with  us  from 
the  first  day  of  this  war  to  this  da.v.  Most  reluc- 
tantly, and,  indeed,  quite  unprepared  for  the 
dreadful  ordeal,  we  were  forced  to  join  in  this 
war  in  self-defence,  in  defence  of  the  violated  pub- 
lic law  of  Europe,  and  in  vindication  of  the  most 
solemn  treaty  obligations  on  which  the  public  sys- 
tem of  Europe  rested,  and  on  which  Germany  had 
ruthlessly  trampled  in  her  invasion  of  Belgium. 
We  had  to  join  in  the  struggle  or  stand  aside  and 
see  Europe  go  under  and  brute  force  triumph  over 
public  right  and  international  justice.  It  was  only 
the  realisation  of  that  dreadful  alternative  that 
forced  the  British  people  into  the  war.  And  from 
that  original  attitude  they  have  never  swerved. 
They  have  never  aimed  at  the  break-up  of  the 


254.  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

German  peoples  or  tlie  disintegration  of  their 
State  or  country.  Germany  has  occupied  a  great 
position  in  the  world.  It  is  not  our  wish  or  inten- 
tion to  question  or  destroy  that  position  for  the  fu- 
ture, but  rather  to  turn  her  aside  from  hopes  and 
schemes  of  military  domination  and  to  see  her  de- 
vote all  her  strength  to  the  great  beneficent  tasks 
of  the  world.  Nor  are  we  fighting  to  destroy 
Austria-Hungary  or  to  deprive  Turkey  of  its  capi- 
tal, or  of  the  rich  and  renowned  lands  of  Asia  Mi- 
nor and  Thrace,  which  are  predominantly  Turkish 
in  race. 

Nor  did  we  enter  this  war  merely  to  alter  or 
destroy  the  Imperial  Constitution  of  Germany, 
much  as  we  consider  that  military  autocratic  Con- 
stitution a  dangerous  anachronism  in  the  twentieth 
century.  Our  point  of  view  is  that  the  adoption  of 
a  really  democratic  Constitution  by  Germany 
would  be  the  most  convincing  evidence  that  in  her 
the  old  spirit  of  military  domination  had  indeed 
died  in  this  war,  and  would  make  it  much  easier 
for  us  to  conclude  a  broad  democratic  peace  with 
her.  But,  after  all,  that  is  a  question  for  the  Ger- 
man people  to  decide. 

The  Enemy's  War  Aims  Pronouncements. 

It  is  now  more  than  a  year  since  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  then  neutral,  addressed  to 
the  belligerents  a  suggestion  that  each  side  should 
state  clearly  the  aims  for  which  they  were  fight- 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  THE  ALLIES      255 

ing.  Wc  and  our  Allies  responded  by  the  Note  of 
January  10,  1917. 

To  the  President's  appeal  the  Central  Empires 
made  no  reply,  and  in  spite  of  many  adjurations, 
both  from  their  opponents  and  from  neutrals,  they 
have  maintained  a  complete  silence  as  to  the  ob- 
jects for  which  they  are  fighting.  Even  on  so 
crucial  a  matter  as  their  intention  with  regard  to 
Belgium  they  have  uniformly  declined  to  give  any 
trustworthy  indication. 

On  December  25  last,  however,  Count  Czemin, 
speaking  on  behalf  of  Austria-Hungary  and  her 
allies,  did  make  a  pronouncement  of  a  kind.  It  is 
indeed  deplorably  vague.  We  are  told  that  ''it  is 
not  the  intention"  of  the  Central  Powers  "to  ap- 
propriate forcibly"  any  occupied  territories  or 
*'to  rob  of  its  independence"  any  nation  which  has 
lost  its  ''political  independence"  during  the  war. 
It  is  obvious  that  almost  any  scheme  of  conquest 
and  annexation  could  be  perpetrated  within  the 
literal  interpretation  of  such  a  pledge. 

Does  it  mean  that  Belgium,  Serbia,  Montenegro, 
and  Rumania  will  be  as  independent  and  as  free 
to  direct  their  own  destinies  as  the  Oermans  or 
any  other  nation  ?  Or  does  it  mean  that  all  man- 
ner of  interferences  and  restrictions,  political  and 
economic,  incompatible  with  the  status  and  dignity 
of  a  freed  self-respecting  people,  are  to  be  im- 
posed? If  this  is  the  intention,  then  there  will  be 
one  kind  of  independence  for  a  great  nation  and 
an  inferior  kind  of  independence  for  a  small  naton. 
"VVe  must  know  what  is  meant,  for  equality  of  right 


256  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

amongst  nations,  small  as  well  as  great,  is  one  of 
the  fundamental  issues  this  country  and  her  Allies 
are  fighting  to  establish  in  this  war.  Reparation 
for  the  wanton  damage  inflicted  on  Belgian  towns 
and  villages  and  their  inhabitants  is  emphatically 
repudiated.  The  rest  of  the  so-called  ''offer"  of 
the  Central  Powers  is  almost  entirely  a  refusal 
of  all  concessions.  All  suggestions  about  the  au- 
tonomy of  subject  nationalities  are  ruled  out  of 
the  peace  terms  altogether.  The  question  w^hether 
any  form  of  self-government  is  to  be  given  to 
Arabs,  Armenians,  or  Syrians  is  declared  to  be 
entirely  a  matter  for  the  Sublime  Porte.  A  pious 
wish  for  the  protection  of  minorities  ''in  so  far  as 
it  is  practically  realisable"  is  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  liberty  which  the  Central  statesmen  ven- 
ture to  make. 


Government  hy  Consent. 

On  one  point  only  are  they  perfectly  clear  and 
definite.  Under  no  circumstances  will  the  "Ger- 
man demand"  for  the  restoration  of  the  whole  of 
Germany's  colonies  be  departed  from.  All  prin- 
ciples of  self-determination,  or,  as  our  earlier 
phrase  goes,  government  by  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned, here  vanish  into  thin  air. 

It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  any  edifice  of 
permanent  peace  could  be  erected  on  such  a  foun- 
dation as  this.  Mere  lip  service  to  the  formula  of 
no  annexations  and  no  indemnities  or  the  right  of 
self-determination  is  useless.    Before  any  negotia- 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  THE  ALLIES       257 

tions  can  ever  be  begun,  the  Central  Powers  must 
realise  the  essential  facts  of  the  situation. 

The  days  of  the  Treaty  of  Vienna  are  long  past. 
We  can  no  longer  submit  the  future  of  European 
civilisation  to  the  arbitrary  decisions  of  a  few  ne- 
gotiators striving  to  secure  by  chicanery  or  per- 
suasion the  interests  of  this  or  that  dynasty  or  na- 
tion. The  settlement  of  the  new  Europe  must  be 
based  on  such  gi'ounds  of  reason  and  justice  as 
will  give  some  promise  of  stability.  Therefore  it 
is  that  we  feel  that  government  with  the  consent 
of  the  governed  must  be  the  basis  of  any  terri- 
torial settlement  in  this  war.  For  that  reason 
also,  unless  treaties  be  upheld,  unless  every  na- 
tion is  prepared  at  whatever  sacrifice  to  honour 
the  national  signature,  it  is  obvious  that  no  Treaty 
of  Peace  can  be  worth  the  paper  on  which  it  is 
written. 

Bestoration  and  Reparation. 

The  first  requirement,  therefore,  always  put  for- 
ward by  the  British  Government  and  their  Allies, 
has  been  the  complete  restoration,  political,  terri- 
torial, and  economic,  of  the  independence  of  Bel- 
gium and  such  reparation  as  can  be  made  for  the 
devastation  of  its  towns  and  provinces.  This  is  no 
demand  for  war  indemnity,  such  as  that  imposed 
on  France  by  Germany  in  1871.  It  is  not  an  at- 
tempt to  shift  the  cost  of  warlike  operations  from 
one  belligerent  to  another,  which  may  or  may  not 
be  defensible.    It  is  no  more  and  no  less  than  an 


258  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

insistence  that,  before  there  can  be  any  hope  for  a 
stable  peace,  this  great  breach  of  the  public  law 
of  Europe  must  be  repudiated  and,  so  far  as  pos- 
sible, repaired.  Reparation  means  recognition. 
Unless  international  right  is  recognised  by  insist- 
ence on  payment  for  injury  done  in  defiance  of 
its  canons  it  can  never  be  a  reality.  Next  comes 
the  restoration  of  Serbia,  Montenegro,  and  the  oc- 
cupied parts  of  France,  Italy,  and  Rumania.  The 
completcy  withdrawal  of  the  alien  armies  and  the 
reparation  for  injustice  done  is  a  fundamental 
condition  of  permanent  peace. 

We  mean  to  stand  by  the  French  democracy  to 
the  death  in  the  demand  they  make  for  a  recon- 
sideration of  the  great  wrong  of  1871,  when,  with- 
out any  regard  to  the  wishes  of  the  population, 
two  French  provinces  were  torn  from  the  side  of 
France  and  incorporated  in  the  German  Empire. 
This  sore  has  poisoned  the  peace  of  Europe  for 
half  a  century,  and  until  it  is  cured  healthy  con- 
ditions will  not  have  been  restored.  There  can 
be  no  better  illustration  of  the  folly  and  wicked- 
ness of  using  a  transient  military  success  to  vio- 
late national  right. 

Russia. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  deal  with  the  question  of 
the  Russian  territories  now  in  German  occupation. 
The  Russian  policy  since  the  Revolution  has 
passed  so  rapidly  through  so  many  phases  that  it 
is  difficult  to  speak  without  some  suspension  of 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  THE  ALLIES      259 

judgment  as  to  what  the  situation  will  be  when  the 
final  terms  of  European  peace  con^e  to  be  dis- 
cussed. Eussia  accepted  war  with  all  its  horrors 
because,  true  to  her  traditional  guardianship  of 
the  weaker  communities  of  her  race,  she  stepped 
in  to  protect  Serbia  from  a  plot  against  her  in- 
dependence. It  is  this  honourable  sacrifice  which 
brought  not  merely  Russia  into  the  war,  but 
France  as  well.  France,  true  to  the  conditions  of 
her  treaty  with  Russia,  stood  by  her  Ally  in  a 
quarrel  which  was  not  her  own.  Her  chivalrous 
respect  for  her  treaty  led  to  the  wanton  invasion 
of  Belgium;  and  the  treaty  obligations  of  Great 
Britain  to  that  little  land  brought  us  into  the  war. 
The  present  rulers  of  Russia  are  now  engaged, 
without  any  reference  to  the  countries  whom  Rus- 
sia brought  into  the  war,  in  separate  negotiations 
with  their  common  enemy.  I  am  indulging  in  no 
reproaches ;  I  am  merely  stating  facts  with  a  view 
to  making  it  clear  why  Britain  cannot  be  held  ac- 
countable for  decisions  taken  in  her  absence,  and 
concerning  which  she  has  not  been  consulted  or 
her  aid  invoked.  No  one  who  knows  Prussia  and 
her  designs  upon  Russia  can  for  a  moment  doubt 
her  ultimate  intention.  Whatever  phrases  she 
may  use  to  delude  Russia,  she  does  not  mean  to 
surrender  one  of  the  fair  provinces  or  cities  of 
Russia  now  occupied  by  her  forces.  Under  one 
name  or  another — and  the  name  hardly  matters — 
those  Russian  provinces  will  henceforth  be  in  real- 
ity part  of  the  dominions  of  Prussia.  They  will 
be  ruled  by  the  Prussian  sword  in  the  interests  of 


260  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Prussian  autocracy,  and  the  rest  of  the  people  of 
Russia  will  be  partly  enticed  by  specious  phrases 
and  partly  bullied  by  the  threat  of  continued  war 
against  an  impotent  army  into  a  condition  of  com- 
plete economic  and  ultimate  political  enslavement 
to  Germany.  We  all  deplore  the  prospect.  The 
democracy  of  this  country  mean  to  stand  to  the 
last  by  the  democracies  of  France  and  Italy  and 
all  our  other  Allies.  We  shall  be  proud  to  fight 
to  the  end  side  by  side  by  the  new  democracy  of 
Russia;  so  will  America  and  so  will  France  and 
Italy.  But  if  the  present  rulers  of  Russia  take 
action  which  is  independent  of  their  Allies  we  have 
no  means  of  intervening  to  arrest  the  catastrophe 
which  is  assuredly  befalling  their  country.  Rus- 
sia can  only  be  saved  by  her  own  people. 

We  believe,  however,  that  an  independent  Po- 
land, comprising  all  those  genuinely  Polish  ele- 
ments who  desire  to  form  part  of  it,  is  an  urgent 
necessity  for  the  stability  of  Western  Europe. 

Austria-Hungari/. 

Similarly,  though  we  agree  with  President  Wil- 
son that  the  break-up  of  Austria-Hungary  is  no 
part  of  our  war  aims,  we  feel  that,  unless  genuine 
self-government  on  true  democratic  principles  is 
granted  to  those  Austro-Hungarian  nationalities 
who  have  long  desired  it,  it  is  impossible  to  hope 
for  the  removal  of  those  causes  of  unrest  in  that 
part  of  Europe  which  have  so  long  threatened  its 
general  peace. 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  THE  ALLIES      261 

On  the  same  grounds  we  regard  as  vital  the  sat- 
isfaction of  the  legitimate  claims  of  the  Italians 
for  union  with  those  of  their  own  race  and  tongue. 
"We  also  mean  to  press  that  justice  be  done  to  men 
of  Rumanian  blood  and  speech  in  their  legitimate 
aspirations.  If  these  conditions  are  fulfilled,  Aus- 
tria-Hungaiy  would  become  a  Power  whose 
strength  would  conduce  to  the  permanent  peace 
and  freedom  of  Europe,  instead  of  being  merely 
an  instrument  to  the  pernicious  military  autocracy 
of  Prussia  that  uses  the  resources  of  its  allies  for 
the  furtherance  of  its  own  sinister  purposes. 

Turkey. 

Outside  Europe  we  believe  that  the  same  prin- 
ciples should  be  applied.  While  we  do  not  chal- 
lenge the  maintenance  of  the  Turkish  Empire  in 
the  homelands  of  the  Turkish  race  with  its  capital 
at  Constantinople — the  passage  between  the  Medi- 
terranean and  the  Black  Sea  being  international- 
ised and  neutralised — Arabia,  Armenia,  Mesopo- 
tamia, Syria,  and  Palestine  are  in  our  judgment 
entitled  to  a  recognition  of  their  separate  national 
conditions. 

What  the  exact  form  of  that  recognition  in  each 
particular  case  should  be  need  not  here  be  dis- 
cussed, beyond  stating  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  restore  to  their  former  sovereignty  the  terri- 
tories to  which  I  have  already  referred. 

Much  has  been  said  about  the  arrangements  we 
have  entered  into  with  our  Allies  on  this  and  on 


262  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

other  subjects.  I  can  only  say  that  as  new  cir- 
cumstances, like  the  Russian  collapse  and  the  sepa- 
rate Russian  negotiations,  have  changed  the  con- 
ditions under  which  those  arrangements  were 
made,  we  are,  and  always  have  been,  perfectly 
ready  to  discuss  them  with  our  Allies. 

The  German  Colonies. 

With  regard  to  the  German  colonies,  I  have  re- 
peatedly declared  that  they  are  held  at  the  dis- 
posal of  a  Conference  whose  decision  must  have 
primary  regard  to  the  wishes  and  interests  of  the 
native  inhabitants  of  such  colonies.  None  of  those 
territories  are  inhabited  by  Europeans.  The  gov- 
erning consideration,  therefore,  in  all  these  cases 
must  be  that  the  inhabitants  should  be  placed 
under  the  control  of  an  administration  acceptable 
to  themselves,  one  of  whose  main  purposes  will  be 
to  prevent  their  exploitation  for  the  benefit  of  Eu- 
ropean capitalists  or  Governments.  The  natives 
live  in  their  various  tribal  organisations  under 
chiefs  and  councils  who  are  competent  to  consult 
and  speak  for  their  tribes  and  members,  and  thus 
to  represent  their  wishes  and  interests  in  regard 
to  their  disposal. 

The  general  principle  of  national  self-determi- 
nation is  therefore  as  applicable  in  their  cases  as 
in  those  of  occupied  European  territories.  The 
German  declaration,  that  the  natives  of  the  Ger- 
man colonies  have,  through  their  military  fidelity 
in  the  war,  shown  their  attachment  c.nd  resolve 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  THE  ALLIES      263 

under  all  circnmstances  to  remain  with  Germany, 
is  applicable  not  to  the  Gennan  col6nies  generally, 
but  only  to  one  of  them,  and  in  that  case  (German 
East  Africa)  the  German  authorities  secured  the 
attachment,  not  of  the  native  population  as  a 
whole,  which  is  and  remains  profoundly  anti-Ger- 
man, but  only  of  a  small  warlike  class  from  whom 
their  Askaris,  or  soldiers,  were  selected.  These 
they  attached  to  themselves  by  conferring  on  them 
a  highly  privileged  position  as  against  the  bulk 
of  the  native  population,  which  enabled  these  As- 
karis to  assume  a  lordly  and  oppressive  superi- 
ority over  the  rest  of  the  natives.  By  this  and 
other  means  they  secured  the  attachment  of  a  very 
small  and  insignificant  minority  whose  interests 
were  directly  opposed  to  those  of  the  rest  of  the 
population,  and  for  whom  they  have  no  right  to 
speak.  The  German  treatment  of  their  native 
populations  in  their  colonies  has  been  such  as  am- 
ply to  justify  their  fear  of  submitting  the  future 
of  those  colonies  to  the  wishes  of  the  natives  them- 
selves. 

Violation  of  Internatio')Ml  Law. 

Finally,  there  must  be  reparation  for  injuries 
done  in  violation  of  international  law.  The  Peace 
Conference  must  not  forget  our  seamen  and  the 
services  they  have  rendered  to,  and  the  outrages 
they  have  suffered  for,  the  common  cause  of  free- 
dom. 


264  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Creaiicn  of  mv  International  Organisation. 

One  omission  we  notice  in  the  proposal  of  the 
Central  Powers  which  seems  to  us  especially  re- 
grettable. It  is  desirable,  and  indeed  essential, 
that  the  settlement  after  this  war  shall  be  one 
which  does  not  in  itself  bear  the  seeji  of  future 
war.  But  that  is  not  enough.  However  wisely 
and  well  we  may  make  territorial  and  other  ar- 
rangements, there  will  still  be  many  subjects  of 
international  controversy.  Some,  indeed,  are  in- 
evitable. 

The  economic  conditions  at  the  end  of  the  war 
will  be  in  the  highest  degree  difficult.  Owing  to 
tbe  diversion  of  human  effort  to  warlike  pursuits, 
there  must  follow  a  world-shortage  of  raw  ma- 
terials, which  will  increase  the  longer  the  war 
lasts,  and  it  is  inevitable  that  those  countries 
which  have  control  of  the  raw  materials  mil  desire 
to  help  themselves  and  their  friends  first. 

Apart  from  this,  whatever  settlement  is  made 
will  be  suitable  only  to  the  circumstances  under 
which,  it  is  made,  and  as  those  circumstances 
change,  changes  in  the  settlement  will  be  called 
for. 

So  long  as  the  possibility  of  dispute  between  na- 
tions continues,  that  is  to  say,  so  long  as  men  and 
women  are  dominated  by  passioned  ambition  and 
war  is  the  only  means  of  settling  a  dispute,  all 
nations  must  live  under  the  burden  not  only  of 
having  from  time  to  time  to  engage  in  it,  but  of 
being  compelled  to  prepare  for  its  possible  out- 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  THE  ALLIES      265 

break.  The  crushing  weight  of  modem  arma- 
ments, the  increasing  evil  of  comjjulsory  military 
service,  the  vast  waste  of  wealth  and  effort  in- 
volved in  warlike  preparation,  these  are  blots  on 
our  civilisation  of  which  every  thinking  individual 
must  be  ashamed. 

For  these  and  other  similar  reasons,  we  are  con- 
fident that  a  great  attempt  must  be  made  to  es- 
tablish by  some  international  organisation  an  al- 
ternative to  war  as  a  means  of  settling  interna- 
tional disputes.  After  all,  war  is  a  relic  of  bar- 
barism, and  just  as  law  has  succeeded  violence  as 
the  means  of  settling  disputes  between  individ- 
uals, so  we  believe  that  it  is  destined  ultimately 
to  take  the  place  of  war  in  the  settlement  of  con- 
troversies between  nations. 


*'A  Just  and  Lasiing  Peace." 

If,  then,  we  are  asked  what  we  are  fighting  for, 
we  reply — as  we  have  often  replied — We  are  fight- 
ing for  a  just  and  a  lasting  peace,  and  we  believe 
that  before  permanent  peace  can  be  hoped  for 
three  conditions  must  be  fulfilled. 

First,  the  sanctity  of  treaties  must  be  re-estab- 
lished; secondly,  a  territorial  settlement  must  be 
secured  based  on  the  right  of  self-determination 
or  the  consent  of  the  governed;  and,  lastly,  we 
must  seek  by  the  creation  of  some  international 
organisation  to  limit  the  burden  of  armaments  and 
diminish  the  probability  of  war. 


266  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

On  these  conditions  the  British  Empire  would 
welcome  peace,  to  secure  these  conditions  its  peo- 
ples are  prepared  to  make  even  greater  sacrifices 
than  those  they  have  yet  endured. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

containing  extracts  from  a  previous  volume  op  speeches, 
"through  terror  to  triumph  !" 

I. 

EXTRACT    FROM    PREFACE    TO    "THROUGH    TERROR    TO    TRIUMPH !" 

After  twelve  months  of  war  my  conviction  is  stronger 
than  ever  that  this  country  could  not  have  kept  out  of  it 
without  imperilling  its  security  and  impairing  its  honour. 
We  could  not  have  looked  on  cynically  with  folded  arms 
whilst  the  country  we  had  given  our  word  to  protect  was 
being  ravaged  and  trodden  by  one  of  our  own  co-trustees. 
If  British  women  and  children  were  being  brutally  de- 
stroyed on  the  high  seas  by  German  submarines,  this 
nation  would  have  insisted  on  calling  the  infanticide 
Empire  to  a  stern  reckoning.  Everything  that  has  hap- 
pened since  the  declaration  of  war  has  demonstrated 
clearly  that  a  military  system  so  regardless  of  good 
faith,  of  honourable  obligations,  and  of  the  elementary 
impulses  of  humanity,  constituted  a  menace  to  civilisa- 
tion of  the  most  sinister  character ;  and  despite  the  terri- 
ble cost  of  suppressing  it,  the  well-being  of  humanity 
demands  that  such  a  system  should  be  challenged  and 
destroyed.  The  fact  that  events  have  also  shown  that  the 
might  of  this  military  clique  has  exceeded  the  gloomiest 
prognostications  provides  an  additional  argument  for  its 
destruction.  The  greater  the  might,  the  darker  the 
menace. 

Nor  have  the  untoward  incidents  of  the  war  weakened 

269 


270  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

my  faith  in  ultimate  victoiy — always  provided  that  the 
allied  nations  put  forth  the  whole  of  their  strength  ere  it 
is  too  late.  Anything  less  must  lead  to  defeat.  The 
allied  countries  have  an  overwhelming  preponderance 
in  the  raw  material  that  goes  to  the  making  and  equip- 
ment of  armies,  whether  in  men,  money,  or  accessible 
metals  and  machinery.  But  this  material  has  to  be 
mobilised  and  utilised.  It  would  be  idle  to  pretend  that 
the  first  twelve  months  of  the  war  has  seen  this  task  ac- 
complished satisfactorily.  Had  the  Allies  realised  in 
time  the  full  strength  of  their  redoubtable  and  resource- 
ful foes — nay,  what  is  more,  had  they  realised  their  own 
strength  and  resources,  and  taken  prompt  action  to 
organise  them,  to-day  we  should  have  witnessed  the 
triumphant  spectacle  of  their  guns  pouring  out  a  stream 
of  shot  and  shell  which  would  have  deluged  the  German 
trenches  with  fire  and  scorched  the  German  legions  back 
across  their  own  frontiers. 

What  is  the  actual  position?  It  is  thoroughly  well 
known  to  the  Germans,  and  anyone  in  any  land,  bellig- 
erent or  neutral,  who  reads  intelligently  the  military 
news,  must  by  now  have  a  comprehension  of  it.  With 
the  resources  of  Great  Britain,  France,  Russia — ^yea,  of 
the  whole  industrial  world — at  the  disposal  of  the  Allies, 
it  is  obvious  that  the  Central  Powers  have  still  an  over- 
whelming superiority  in  all  the  material  and  equipment 
of  war.  The  result  of  this  deplorable  fact  is  exactly 
what  might  have  been  foreseen.  The  iron  heel  of  Ger- 
many has  sunk  deeper  than  ever  into  French  and  Bel- 
gian soil.  Poland  is  entirely  German;  Lithuania  is 
rapidly  following.  Russian  fortresses,  deemed  im- 
pregnable, are  falling  like  sand  castles  before  the  resist- 
less tide  of  Teutonic  invasion.  When  will  that  tide  re- 
cede ?  When  will  it  be  stemmed  ?  As  soon  as  the  Allies 
are  supplied  with  abundance  of  war  material. 


APPENDIX  271 

That  is  why  I  am  recalling  these  unpleasant  facts,  be- 
cause I  wish  to  stir  my  countrymen  to  |3ut  forth  their 
strength  to  amend  the  situation.  To  dwell  on  such 
events  is  the  most  disagreeable  task  that  can  fall  to  the 
lot  of  a  public  man.  For  all  that,  the  public  man  who 
either  shirks  these  facts  himself,  or  does  not  do  his  best 
to  force  others  to  face  them  until  they  are  redressed,  is 
guilty  of  high  treason  to  the  State  which  he  has  sworn 
to  serve. 

There  has  been  a  great  awakening  in  all  the  Allied 
countries,  and  prodigious  efforts  are  being  put  forth  to 
equip  the  armies  in  the  field.  I  know  what  we  are  doing : 
our  exertions  are  undoubtedly  immense.  But  can  we  do 
more  cither  in  men  or  material?  Nothing  but  our  best 
and  utmost  can  pull  us  through.  Are  we  now  straining 
every  nerve  to  make  up  for  lost  time?  Are  we  getting 
all  the  men  we  shall  want  to  put  into  the  fighting  line 
next  year  to  enable  us  even  to  hold  our  own  ?  Does  every 
man  who  can  help,  whether  by  fighting  or  by  providing 
material,  understand  clearly  that  ruin  awaits  remiss- 
ness? How  many  people  in  this  country  fully  appre- 
hend the  full  significance  of  the  Russian  retreat  ?  For 
over  twelve  months  Russia  has  in  spite  of  deficiencies  in 
equipment  absorbed  the  energies  of  half  the  German  and 
four-fifths  of  the  Austrian  forces.  Is  it  realised  that 
Russia  has  for  the  time  being  made  her  contribution — 
and  what  a  heroic  contribution  it  is! — to  the  straggle 
for  European  freedom,  and  that  we  cannot  for  many 
months  to  come  expect  the  same  active  help  from  the 
Russian  armies  that  we  have  hitherto  received?  Who 
is  to  take  the  Russian  place  in  the  fight  whilst  those 
armies  are  re-equipping?  Who  is  to  bear  the  weight 
which  has  hitherto  fallen  on  Russian  shoulders  ?  France 
cannot  be  expected  to  sustain  much  heavier  burdens 
than  those  which  she  now  bears  with  a  quiet  courage 


272  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

that  has  astonished  and  moved  the  world.  Italy  is  put- 
ting her  strength  into  the  fight.  What  could  she  do 
more  ?  There  is  only  Britain  left.  Is  Britain  prepared 
to  fill  up  the  great  gap  that  will  be  created  when  Russia 
has  retired  to  re-arm?  Is  she  fully  prepared  to  cope 
with  all  the  possibilities  of  the  next  few  months — in  the 
"West,  without  forgetting  the  East?  Upon  the  answer 
which  Government,  employers,  workmen,  financiers, 
young  men  who  can  bear  arms,  women  who  can  work  in 
factories — in  fact,  the  whole  people  of  this  great  land, 
give  to  this  question,  will  depend  the  liberties  of  Europe 
for  many  a  generation. 

A  shrewd  and  sagacious  observer  told  me  the  other  day 
that  in  his  judgment  the  course  pursued  by  this  coun- 
try during  the  next  three  months  would  decide  the  fate 
of  this  war.  If  we  are  not  allowed  to  equip  our  factories 
and  workshops  with  adequate  labour  to  supply  our  ar- 
mies, because  we  must  not  transgress  regulations  applica- 
ble to  normal  conditions;  if  practices  are  maintained 
which  restrict  the  output  of  essential  war  material;  if 
the  nation  hesitates,  when  the  need  is  clear,  to  take  the 
necessary  steps  to  call  forth  its  manhood  to  defend  hon- 
our and  existence ;  if  vital  decisions  are  postponed  until 
too  late;  if  we  neglect  to  make  ready  for  all  probable 
eventualities;  if,  in  fact,  we  give  ground  for  the  accu- 
sation that  we  are  slouching  into  disaster  as  if  we  were 
walking  along  the  ordinary  paths  of  peace  without  an 
enemy  in  sight ;  then  I  can  see  no  hope :  but  if  we 
sacrifice  all  we  own  and  all  we  like  for  our  native  land ; 
if  our  preparations  are  characterised  by  grip,  resolu- 
tion, and  a  prompt  readiness  in  every  sphere ;  then  vic- 
tory is  assured. 


II. 
"THROUGH    TERROR   TO    TRIUMPH!" 

SPEECH  ON  THE  WAR,  DELIVERED  AT  THE  QUEEN'S  HALL,  LONDON, 
SEPTEMBER   19tH,      1914. 

Why  Our  National  Honour  is  Involved. 

There  is  no  man  who  has  always  regarded  the  prospect 
of  engaging  in  a  great  war  with  greater  reluctance  and 
with  greater  repugnance  than  I  have  done  throughout 
the  whole  of  my  political  life.  There  is  no  man  more 
convinced  that  we  could  not  have  avoided  it  without  na- 
tional dishonour.  I  am  fully  alive  to  the  fact  that  every 
nation  who  has  ever  engaged  in  any  war  has  always 
invoked  the  sacred  name  of  honour.  Many  a  crime  has 
been  committed  in  its  name ;  there  are  some  being  com- 
mitted now.  All  the  same,  national  honour  is  a  reality, 
and  any  nation  that  disregards  it  is  doomed.  Why  is 
our  honour  as  a  country  involved  in  this  war?  Be- 
cause, in  the  first  instance,  we  are  bound  by  honourable 
obligations  to  defend  the  independence,  the  liberty,  the 
integrity,  of  a  small  neighbour  who  has  always  lived 
peaceably.  She  could  not  have  compelled  us;  she  was 
weak;  but  the  man  who  declines  to  discharge  his  duty 
because  his  creditor  is  too  poor  to  enforce  it  is  a  black- 
guard. We  entered  into  a  treaty — a  solemn  treaty — two 
treaties — to  defend  Belgium  and  her  integrity.  Our 
signatures  are  attached  to  the  documents.  Our  signa- 
tures do  not  stand  alone  there ;  this  country  was  not  the 
only  country  that  undertook  to  defend  the  integrity  of 

273 


274  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

Belgium.  Russia,  France,  Austria,  Prussia — they  are  all 
there.  Why  are  Austria  and  Prussia  not  performing  the 
obligations  of  their  bond? 


France  and  Belgium  in  1870. 

It  is  suggested  that  when  we  quot€  this  treaty  it  is 
purely  an  excuse  on  our  part — it  is  our  low  craft  and 
cunning  to  cloak  our  jealousy  of  a  superior  civilisation 
that  we  are  attempting  to  destroy.  Our  answer  is  the 
action  we  took  in  1870.  "What  was  that  ?  Mr.  Gladstone 
was  then  Prime  Minister.  Lord  Granville,  I  think,  was 
then  Foreign  Secretary.  I  have  never  heard  it  laid  to 
their  charge  that  they  were  ever  Jingoes.  That  treaty 
bound  us  then.  We  called  upon  the  belligerent  Powers 
to  respect  it.  We  called  upon  France,  and  we  called 
upon  Germany.  At  that  time,  bear  in  mind,  the  great- 
est danger  to  Belgium  came  from  France  and  not  from 
Germany.  We  intervened  to  protect  Belgium  against 
France,  exactly  as  we  are  doing  now  to  protect  her 
against  Germany.  We  proceeded  in  exactly  the  same 
way.  We  invited  both  the  belligerent  Powers  to  state 
that  they  had  no  intention  of  violating  Belgian  terri- 
tory. What  was  the  answer  given  by  Bismarck  ?  He  said  it 
was  superfluous  to  ask  Prussia  such  a  question  in  view 
of  the  treaties  in  force.  France  gave  a  similar  answer. 
We  received  at  that  time  the  thanks  of  the  Belgian  peo- 
ple for  our  intervention  in  a  very  remarkable  document. 
It  is  a  document  addressed  by  the  municipality  of  Brus- 
sels to  Queen  Victoria  after  that  intervention,  and  it 
reads : — 


' '  The  great  and  noble  people  over  whose  destinies  you 
preside  has  just  given  a  further  proof  of  its  benevolent 
sentiments  towards  oux  country.  .  .  .  The  voice  of  the 


APPENDIX  275 

English  nation  has  been  heard  above  the  din  of  arms, 
and  it  has  asserted  the  principles  of  justice  and  ricrht. 
Next  to  the  unalterable  attachment  of  the  Belgian  people 
to  their  independence,  the  strongest  sentiment  which  fills 
their  hearts  is  that  of  an  imperishable  gratitude." 

That  was  in  1870.  Mark  what  followed.  Three  or 
four  days  after  that  document  of  thanks,  a  French  army- 
was  wedged  up  against  the  Belgian  frontier,  every  means 
of  escape  shut  out  by  a  ring  of  flame  from  Prussian 
cannon.  There  was  one  way  of  escape.  What  was  that  ? 
Violating  the  neutrality  of  Belgium.  "What  did  they 
do?  The  French  on  that  occasion  preferred  ruin  and 
humiliation  to  the  breaking  of  their  bond.  The  French 
Emperor,  the  French  marshals,  a  hundred  thousand  gal- 
lant Frenchmen  in  arms,  preferred  to  be  carried  captive 
to  the  strange  land  of  their  enemies,  rather  than  dis- 
honour the  name  of  their  country.  It  was  the  last 
French  army  in  the  field.  Had  they  violated  Belgian 
neutrality,  the  whole  history  of  that  war  would  have 
been  changed,  and  yet,  when  it  was  the  interest  of 
France  to  break  the  treaty  then,  she  did  not  do  it. 

''A  Scrap  of  Paper." 

It  is  the  interest  of  Prussia  to-day  to  break  the  treaty, 
and  she  has  done  it.  She  avows  it  with  cynical  contempt 
for  every  principle  of  justice.  She  says :  ' '  Treaties  only 
bind  you  when  it  is  your  interest  to  keep  them. "  "  What 
is  a  treaty?"  says  the  German  Chancellor.  *'A  scrap 
of  paper,"  Have  you  any  £5  notes  about  you?  I  am 
not  calling  for  them.  Have  you  any  of  those  neat  little 
Treasury  £1  notes?  If  you  have,  burn  them;  they  are 
only  scraps  of  paper.  What  are  they  made  of?  Rags. 
What  are  they  worth  ?  The  whole  credit  of  the  British 
Empire.     Scraps  of  paper!     I  have  been  dealing  with 


276  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

scraps  of  paper  within  the  last  month.  One  suddenly 
found  the  commerce  of  the  world  coming  to  a  standstill. 
The  machine  had  stopped.  Why?  I  will  tell  you.  We 
discovered — many  of  us  for  the  first  time,  for  I  do  not 
pretend  that  I  do  not  know  much  more  about  the  ma- 
chinery of  commerce  to-day  than  I  did  six  weeks  ago, 
and  there  are  many  others  like  me — we  discovered  that 
the  machinery  of  commerce  was  moved  by  bills  of  ex- 
change. I  have  seen  some  of  them,  wretched,  crinkled, 
scrawled  over,  blotched,  frowsy,  and  yet  those  wretched 
little  scraps  of  paper  move  great  ships  laden  with  thou- 
sands of  tons  of  precious  cargo  from  one  end  of  the  world 
to  the  other.  What  is  the  motive  power  behind  them? 
The  honour  of  commercial  men. 

Treaties  are  the  currency  of  international  statesman- 
ship. Let  us  be  fair:  German  merchants,  German  trad- 
ers, have  the  reputation  of  being  as  upright  and  straight- 
forward as  any  traders  in  the  world,  but  if  the  currency 
of  German  commerce  is  to  be  debased  to  the  level  of 
that  of  her  statesmanship,  no  trader  from  Shanghai  to 
Valparaiso  will  ever  look  at  a  German  signature  again. 
This  doctrine  of  the  scrap  of  paper,  this  doctrine  which 
is  proclaimed  by  Bernhardi,  that  treaties  only  bind  a 
nation  as  long  as  it  is  to  its  interest,  goes  under  the  root 
of  all  public  law.  It  is  the  straight  road  to  barbarism. 
It  is  as  if  you  were  to  revoke  the  Magnetic  Pole  because 
it  was  in  the  way  of  a  German  cruiser.  The  whole  navi- 
gation of  the  seas  would  become  dangerous,  difficult  and 
impossible ;  and  the  whole  machinery  of  civilisation  will 
break  down  if  this  doctrine  wins  in  this  war.  We  are 
fighting  against  barbarism,  and  there  is  only  one  way  of 
putting  it  right.  If  there  are  nations  that  say  they  will 
only  respect  treaties  when  it  is  to  their  interest  to  do  so, 
we  must  make  it  to  their  interest  to  do  so  for  the  future. 


APPENDIX  277 

Germany's  Perjury. 

What  is  their  defence?  Consider  the  ihterview  which 
took  place  between  our  Ambassador  and  the  great  Ger- 
man officials.  When  their  attention  was  called  to  this 
treaty  to  which  they  were  parties,  they  said:  "We  can- 
not help  that.  Kapidity  of  action  is  the  great  German 
asset."  There  is  a  greater  asset  for  a  nation  than 
rapidity  of  action,  and  that  is  honest  dealing.  What 
are  Germany's  excuses?  She  says  Belgium  was  plot- 
ting against  her;  Belgium  was  engaged  in  a  great  con- 
spiracj^  with  Britain  and  with  France  to  attack  her. 
Not  merely  is  it  not  true,  but  Germany  knows  it  is  not 
true.  What  is  her  other  excuse?  That  France  meant 
to  invade  Germany  through  Belgium.  That  is  abso- 
lutely untrue.  France  offered  Belgium  five  army  corps 
to  defend  her  if  she  were  attacked.  Belgium  said :  "  I 
do  not  require  them ;  I  have  the  word  of  the  Kaiser. 
Shall  Cassar  send  a  lie?"  All  these  tales  about  con- 
spiracy have  been  vamped  up  since.  A  great  nation 
ought  to  be  ashamed  to  behave  like  a  fraudulent  bank- 
rupt, perjuring  its  way  through  its  obligations.  What 
she  says  is  not  true.  She  has  deliberately  broken  this 
treaty,  and  we  were  in  honour  bound  to  stand  by  it. 

Belgium's  ''Crime." 

Belgium  has  been  treated  brutally.  How  brutally  we 
shall  not  yet  know.  We  already  know  too  much.  But 
what  had  she  done  ?  Had  she  sent  an  ultimatum  to  Ger- 
many? Had  she  challenged  Germany?  Was  she  pre- 
paring to  make  war  on  Germany  ?  Had  she  inflicted  any 
wrong  upon  Germany  which  the  Kaiser  was  bound  to 
redress?  She  was  one  of  the  most  unoffending  little 
countries  in  Europe.    There  she  was — peaceable,  indus- 


278  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

trious,  thrifty,  hard-working,  giving  offence  to  no  one. 
And  her  cornfields  have  been  trampled,  her  villages 
have  been  burnt,  her  art  treasures  have  been  destroyed, 
her  men  have  been  slaughtered — yea,  and  her  women 
and  children  too.  Hundreds  and  thousands  of  her  peo- 
ple, their  neat,  comfortable  little  homes  burnt  to  the 
dust,  are  wandering  homeless  in  their  own  land.  What 
was  their  crime?  Their  crime  was  that  they  trusted  to 
the  word  of  a  Prussian  King.  I  do  not  know  what  the 
Kaiser  hopes  to  achieve  by  this  war.  I  have  a  shrewd 
idea  what  he  will  get ;  but  one  thing  he  has  made  certain, 
and  that  is  that  no  nation  will  ever  commit  that  crime 
again. 

"The  Right  to  Defend  Its  Homes." 

I  am  not  going  to  enter  into  details  of  outrages.  War 
is  a  grim,  ghastly  business  at  best  or  worst,  and  I  am 
not  going  to  say  that  all  that  has  been  said  in  the  way 
of  outrages  must  necessarily  be  true.  I  will  go  beyond 
that,  and  I  will  say  that  if  you  turn  two  million  men — 
forced,  conscript,  compelled,  driven — into  the  fi^eld,  you 
will  always  get  amongst  them  a  certain  number  who 
will  do  things  that  the  nation  to  which  they  belong 
would  be  ashamed  of.  I  am  not  depending  on  these 
tales.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  have  the  story  which 
Germans  themselves  avow,  admit,  defend  and  proclaim 
— the  burning  and  massacring,  the  shooting  down  of 
harmless  people.  Why  ?  Because,  according  to  the  Ger- 
mans, these  people  fired  on  German  soldiers.  What 
business  had  German  soldiers  there  at  all?  Belgium 
was  acting  in  pursuance  of  the  most  sacred  right,  the 
right  to  defend  its  homes.  But  they  were  not  in  uni- 
form when  they  fired !  If  a  burglar  broke  into  the 
Kaiser's  Palace  at  Potsdam,  destroyed  his  furniture, 
killed  his  servants,  ruined  his  art  treasures — especially 


APPENDIX  279 

those  he  has  made  himself — and  burned  the  precious 
manuscripts  of  his  speeches,  do  you  think  he  would 
wait  until  he  got  into  uniform  before  he  shot  him  down  ? 
The  Belgians  were  dealing  with  tliose  who  had  broken 
into  their  household. 

But  the  perfidy  of  the  Germans  has  already  failed. 
They  entered  Belgium  to  save  time.  The  time  has  gone. 
They  have  not  gained  time,  but  they  have  lost  their 
good  name. 

The  Case  of  Serbia. 

But  Belgium  is  not  the  only  little  nation  that  has  been 
attacked  in  this  war,  and  I  make  no  excuse  for  referring 
to  the  case  of  the  other  little  nation,  the  case  of  Serbia. 
The  history  of  Serbia  is  not  unblotted.  Whose  history, 
in  the  category  of  nations,  is  unblotted?  The  first  na- 
tion that  is  without  sin,  let  her  cast  a  stone  at  Serbia. 
She  was  a  nation  trained  in  a  horrible  school,  but  she 
won  her  freedom  with  a  tenacious  valour,  and  she  has 
maintained  it  by  the  same  courage.  If  any  Serbians 
were  mixed  up  in  the  assassination  of  the  Grand  Duke, 
they  ought  to  be  punished.  Serbia  admits  that.  The 
Serbian  Government  had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Not 
even  Austria  claims  that.  The  Serbian  Prime  Minister 
is  one  of  the  most  capable  and  honoured  men  in  Europe. 
Serbia  was  willing  to  punish  any  one  of  her  subjects  who 
had  been  proved  to  have  any  complicity  in  that  assassina- 
tion.   What  more  could  you  expect? 

What  were  the  Austrian  demands?  Serbia  sympa- 
thised with  her  fellow-countrymen  in  Bosnia — that  was 
one  of  her  crimes.  She  must  do  so  no  more.  Her  news- 
papers were  saying  nasty  things  about  Austria;  they 
must  do  so  no  longer.  That  is  the  German  spirit;  you 
had  it  in  Zabern.  How  dare  you  criticise  a  Prussian 
official?    And  if  you  laugh,  it  is  a  capital  offence — the 


280  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

colonel  in  Zabem  threatened  to  shoot  if  it  was  repeated. 
In  the  same  way  the  Serbian  newspapers  must  not  criti- 
cise Austria.  I  wonder  what  would  have  happened  if 
we  had  taken  the  same  line  about  German  newspapers ! 
Serbia  said:  "Very  well,  we  will  give  orders  to  the 
newspapers  that  they  must  in  future  criticise  neither 
Austria,  nor  Hungary,  nor  anything  that  is  theirs." 
"Who  can  doubt  the  valour  of  Serbia,  when  she  undertook 
to  tackle  her  newspaper  editors?  She  promised  not  to 
sympathise  with  Bosnia ;  she  promised  to  write  no  criti- 
cal articles  about  Austria;  she  would  have  no  public 
meetings  in  which  anything  unkind  was  said  about 
Austria. 

"Serbia  Faced  the  Situation  with  Dignity." 

But  that  was  not  enough.  She  must  dismiss  from  her 
army  the  officers  whom  Austria  should  subsequently 
name — those  officers  who  had  just  emerged  from  a  war 
where  they  had  added  lustre  to  the  Serbian  arms.  They 
were  gallant,  brave  and  efficient.  I  wonder  whether  it 
was  their  guilt  or  their  efficiency  that  prompted  Aus- 
tria's action!  But,  mark  you,  the  officers  were  not 
named;  Serbia  was  to  undertake  in  advance  to  dismiss 
them  from  the  army,  the  names  to  be  sent  in  subse- 
quently. Can  you  name  a  country  in  the  world  that 
would  have  stood  that  ?  Supposing  Austria  or  Germany 
had  issued  an  ultimatum  of  that  kind  to  this  country, 
saying,  "You  must  dismiss  from  your  Army — and  from 
your  Navy — all  those  officers  whom  we  shall  subsequent- 
ly name. ' '  Well,  I  think  I  could  name  them  now.  Lord 
Kitchener  would  go.  Sir  John  French  would  be  sent 
away;  General  Smith-Dorrien  would  go,  and  I  am  sure 
that  Sir  John  Jellicoe  would  have  to  go.  And  there  is 
another  gallant  old  warrior  who  would  go — ^Lord  Rob- 


APPENDIX  281 

erts.  It  was  a  difficult  situation  for  a  small  country. 
Here  was  a  demand  made  upon  her  by  a  great  military 
Power  that  could  have  put  half-a-dozen  men  in  the  field 
for  every  one  of  Serbia's  men,  and  that  Power  was  sup- 
ported by  the  greatest  military  Power  in  the  world.  How 
did  Serbia  behave?  It  is  not  what  happens  to  you  in 
life  that  matters;  it  is  the  way  in  which  you  face  it — 
and  Serbia  faced  the  situation  with  dignity.  She  said 
to  Austria:  "If  any  officers  of  mine  have  been  guilty, 
and  are  proved  to  be  guilty,  I  will  dismiss  them."  Aus- 
tria said:  "That  is  not  good  enough  for  me."  It  was 
not  guilt  she  was  after,  but  capacity. 

Russia's  Turn. 

Then  came  Russia's  turn.  Russia  has  a  special  re- 
gard for  Serbia;  she  has  a  special  interest  in  Serbia. 
Russians  have  shed  their  blood  for  Serbian  independence 
many  a  time,  for  Serbia  is  a  member  of  Russia's  fam- 
ily, and  she  cannot  see  Serbia  maltreated.  Austria 
knew  that.  Germany  knew  it,  and  she  turned  round  to 
Russia  and  said:  "I  insist  that  you  shall  stand  by  with 
your  arms  folded  whilst  Austria  is  strangling  your  lit- 
tle brother  to  death."  What  answer  did  the  Russian 
Slav  give?  He  gave  the  only  answer  that  becomes  a 
man.  He  turned  to  Austria  and  said:  "You  lay  hands 
on  that  little  fellow,  and  I  will  tear  your  ramshackle 
Empire  limb  from  limb."    And  he  will  do  it! 

The  Little  Nations. 

That  is  the  story  of  two  little  nations.  The  world 
owes  much  to  little  nations — and  to  little  men!  This 
theory  of  bigness,  this  theory  that  you  must  have  a  big 
Empire,  and  a  big  nation,  and  a  big  man — well,  long  legs 


282  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

have  their  advantage  in  a  retreat.  Frederick  the  First 
chose  his  warriors  for  their  height,  and  that  tradition 
has  become  a  policy  in  Germany.  Germany  applies  that 
ideal  to  nations,  and  will  only  allow  six-foot-two  nations 
to  stand  in  the  ranks.  But  ah !  the  world  owes  much  to 
the  little  five-foot-five  nations.  The  greatest  art  in  the 
world  was  the  work  of  little  nations;  the  most  endur- 
ing literature  of  the  world  came  from  little  nations; 
the  greatest  literature  of  England  came  when  she  was  a 
nation  of  the  size  of  Belgium  fighting  a  great  Empire. 
The  heroic  deeds  that  thrill  humanity  through  genera- 
tions were  the  deeds  of  little  nations  fighting  for  their 
freedom.  Yes,  and  the  salvation  of  mankind  came 
through  a  little  nation,  God  has  chosen  little  nations 
as  the  vessels  by  which  He  carries  His  choicest  wines 
to  the  lips  of  humanity,  to  rejoice  their  hearts,  to  exalt 
their  vision,  to  stimulate  and  strengthen  their  faith: 
and  if  we  had  stood  by  when  two  little  nations  were 
being  crushed  and  broken  by  the  brutal  hands  of  barbar- 
ism, our  shame  would  have  rung  down  the  everlasting 
ages. 

''The  Test  of  Our  Faith." 

But  Germany  insists  that  this  is  an  attack  by  a  lower 
civilisation  upon  a  higher  one.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
attack  was  begun  by  the  civilisation  which  calls  itself 
the  higher  one.  I  am  no  apologist  for  Russia:  she  has 
perpetrated  deeds  of  which  I  have  no  doubt  her  best 
sons  are  ashamed.  What  Empire  has  not?  But  Ger- 
many is  the  last  Empire  to  point  the  finger  of  reproach 
at  Russia.  Russia  has  made  sacrifices  for  freedom — 
great  sacrifices.  Do  you  remember  the  cry  of  Bulgaria 
when  she  was  torn  by  the  most  insensate  tyranny  that 
Europe  has  ever  seen  ?  Who  listened  to  that  cry  ?  The 
only  answer  of  the  higher  civilisation  was  that  the  liberty 


APPENDIX  283 

of  the  Bulgarian  peasants  was  not  worth  the  life  of  a 
single  Pomeranian  soldier.  But  the  rude  barbarians  of 
the  North  sent  their  sons  by  the  thousand  to  die  for 
Bulgarian  freedom.  What  about  England?  Go  to 
Greece,  the  Netherlands,  Italy,  Germany,  France — in  all 
those  lands  I  could  point  out  places  where  the  sons  of 
Britain  have  died  for  the  freedom  of  those  peoples. 
France  has  made  sacrifices  for  the  freedom  of  other 
lands  than  her  own.  Can  you  name  a  single  country  in 
the  world  for  the  freedom  of  which  modern  Prussia  has 
ever  sacrified  a  single  life?  By  the  test  of  our  faith, 
the  highest  standard  of  civilisation  is  the  readiness  to 
sacrifice  for  others. 

German  "Civilisation." 

I  will  not  say  a  single  word  in  disparagement  of  the 
German  people.  They  are  a  great  people,  and  have  great 
qualities  of  head  and  hand  and  heart.  I  believe,  in  spite 
of  recent  events,  that  there  is  as  great  a  store  of  kindli- 
ness in  the  German  peasant  as  in  any  peasant  in  the 
world ;  but  he  has  been  drilled  into  a  false  idea  of  civilisa- 
tion. It  is  efficient,  it  is  capable ;  but  it  is  a  hard  civilisa- 
tion; it  is  a  selfish  civilisation;  it  is  a  material  civilisa- 
tion. They  cannot  comprehend  the  action  of  Britain  at 
the  present  moment;  they  say  so.  They  say,  "France 
we  can  understand ;  she  is  out  for  vengeance ;  she  is  out 
for  territory — Alsace  and  Lorraine."  They  say  they 
can  understand  Russia;  she  is  fighting  for  mastery — 
she  wants  Galicia.  They  can  understand  you  fighting 
for  masterv' — they  can  understand  you  fighting  for 
greed  of  territory;  but  they  cannot  understand  a  gi'eat 
Empire  pledging  its  resources,  pledging  its  might, 
pledging  the  lives  of  its  children,  pledging  its  very  ex- 
istence, to  protect  a  little  nation  that  seeks  to  defend 


2S4  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

herself.  God  made  man  in  HLs  own  image,  high  of 
purpose,  in  the  region  of  the  spirit :  German  civilisation 
would  re-create  him  in  the  image  of  a  Diesel  machine — 
precise,  accurate,  powerful,  but  with  no  room  for  soul 
to  operate. 

Philosophy  of  Blood  and  Iroi\. 

Have  you  read  the  Kaiser's  speeches?  If  you  have 
not  a  copy  I  adWse  you  to  buy  one;  they  will  soon  be 
out  of  print,  and  you  will  not  have  many  more  of  the 
same  sort.  They  are  full  of  the  glitter  and  bluster  of 
German  militarism — "mailed  fist."  and  "shining  ar- 
mour." Poor  old  mailed  fist  I  Its  knuckles  are  getting 
a  little  bruised.  Poor  shining  armour  I  The  shine  is 
being  knocked  out  of  it.  There  is  the  same  swagger  and 
boastfulness  running  through  the  whole  of  the  speeches. 
The  extract  which  was  given  in  the  British  Weekly  this 
week  is  a  very  remarkable  product  as  an  iLlustration 
of  the  spirit  we  have  to  fight.  It  is  the  Kaiser's  speech 
to  his  soldiers  on  the  way  to  the  front : — 

"Remember  that  the  German  people  are  the  chosen 
of  God.  On  me.  the  German  Emperor,  the  Spirit  of 
God  has  descended.  I  am  His  sword,  His  weapon,  and 
His  vicegerent.  TToe  to  the  disobedient,  and  death  t» 
cowards  and  unbelievers." 

Lunacy  is  always  distressing,  but  sometimes  it  is  dan- 
gerous :  and  when  you  get  it  manifested  in  the  head  of 
the  State,  and  it  has  become  the  i)olicy  of  a  great  Em- 
pire, it  is  about  time  that  it  should  be  ruthlessly  put 
away.  I  do  not  believe  he  meant  all  those  speeches ; 
it  was  simply  the  martial  straddle  he  had  acquired. 
But  there  were  men  around  him  who  meant  every  word 
of   them.      This   was  their  religion.      Treaties?     Thev 


APPENDIX  285 

tangle  the  feet  of  Germany  in  her  advance.  Cut  them 
with  the  sword !  Little  nations  ?  They  hinder  the  ad- 
vance of  Germany.  Trample  them  in  the  mire  under  the 
German  heel!  The  Russian  Slav?  He  challenges  the 
supremacy  of  Gennany  and  Europe.  Hurl  your  legions 
at  him  and  massacre  him !  Britain  ?  She  is  a  constant 
menace  to  the  predominancy  of  Germany  in  the  world. 
Wrest  the  trident  out  of  her  hand !  Christianity  ?  Sick- 
ly sentimentalism  about  sacrifice  for  others!  Poor  pap 
for  German  digestion!  We  will  have  a  new  diet.  We 
will  force  it  upon  the  world.  It  will  be  made  in  Ger- 
many— a  diet  of  blood  and  iron.  What  remains  ?  Trea- 
ties have  gone.  The  honour  of  nations  has  gone.  Lib- 
erty has  gone.  What  is  left?  Germany!  Germany  is 
left !— ' '  Deutschland  iiber  Alles ! ' ' 

That  is  what  we  are  fighting — that  claim  to  predomi- 
nancy of  a  material,  hard  civilisation,  a  civilisation 
which  if  it  once  rules  and  sways  the  world,  liberty  goes, 
democracy  vanishes.  And  unless  Britain  and  her  sons 
come  to  the  rescue  it  will  be  a  dark  day  for  humanity. 

"The  Road-Hog  of  Europe." 

We  are  not  fighting  the  German  people.  The  German 
people  are  under  the  heel  of  this  military  caste,  and 
it  will  be  a  day  of  rejoicing  for  the  German  peasant, 
artisan,  and  trader  when  the  military  caste  is  broken. 
You  know  its  pretensions.  They  give  themselves  the 
airs  of  demigods.  They  walk  the  pavements,  and  civil- 
ians and  their  wives  are  swept  into  the  gutter;  they 
have  no  right  to  stand  in  the  way  of  a  great  Pnissian 
soldier.  Men,  women,  nations — they  all  have  to  go.  He 
thinks  aU  he  has  to  say  is  "We  are  in  a  hurry."  That 
is  the  answer  he  gave  to  Belgium — "Rapidity  of  action 
is  Germany's  greatest  asset,"  which  means  "I  am  in  a 


286  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

hurry;  clear  out  of  my  way."  You  know  the  type  of 
motorist,  the  terror  of  the  roads,  with  a  60  horse-power 
car,  who  thinks  the  roads  are  made  for  him,  and  knocks 
down  anybody  who  impedes  the  action  of  his  car  by  a 
single  mile  an  hour.  The  Prussian  Junker  is  the  road- 
hog  of  Europe.  Small  nationalities  in  his  way  are 
hurled  to  the  roadside,  bleeding  and  broken.  Women 
and  children  are  crushed  under  the  wheels  of  his  cruel 
car,  and  Britain  is  ordered  out  of  his  road.  All  I  can 
say  is  this:  if  the  old  British  spirit  is  alive  in  British 
hearts,  that  bully  will  be  torn  from  his  seat.  Were  he 
to  win,  it  would  be  the  greatest  catastrophe  that  has 
befallen  democracy  since  the  day  of  the  Holy  Alliance 
and  its  ascendancy. 

"Through  Terror  to  Triumph." 

They  think  we  cannot  beat  them.  It  will  not  be  easy. 
It  will  be  a  long  job;  it  will  be  a  teri'ible  war;  but  in 
the  end  we  shall  march  through  terror  to  triumph.  We 
shall  need  all  our  qualities — every  quality  that  Britain 
and  its  people  possess — prudence  in  counsel,  daring  in 
action,  tenacity  in  purpose,  courage  in  defeat,  modera- 
tion in  victory ;  in  all  things  faith ! 

It  has  pleased  them  to  believe  and  to  preach  the  belief 
that  we  are  a  decadent  and  degenerate  people.  They 
proclaim  to  the  world  through  their  professors  that  we 
are  a  non-heroic  nation  skulking  behind  our  mahogany 
counters,  whilst  we  egg  on  more  gallant  races  to  their 
destruction.  This  is  the  description  given  of  us  in  Ger- 
many— "a  timorous,  craven  nation,  trusting  to  its 
Fleet."  I  think  they  are  beginning  to  find  their  mis- 
take out  already — and  there  are  half  a  million  young 
men  of  Britain  who  have  already  registered  a  vow  to 
their  King  that  they  will  cross  the  seas  and  hurl  that 


APPENDIX  287 

insult  to  British  courage  against  its  perpetrators  on  the 
battlefields  of  France  and  Germany.  We  want  half  a 
million  more;  and  we  shall  get  them. 

''A  Welsh  Army  in  the  Field" 

Wales  must  continue  doing  her  duty.  I  should  like 
to  see  a  Welsh  army  in  the  field.  I  should  like  to  see 
the  race  that  faced  the  Norman  for  hundreds  of  years  in 
■a  struggle  for  freedom,  the  race  that  helped  to  win 
Crecy,  the  race  that  fought  for  a  generation  under  Glen- 
dower  against  the  greatest  captain  in  Europe — I  should 
like  to  see  that  race  give  a  good  taste  of  its  quality  in 
this  struggle  in  Europe ;  and  they  are  going  to  do  it. 

The  Sacrifice. 

I  envy  you  young  people  your  opportunity.  They 
have  put  up  the  age  limit  for  the  Army,  but  I  am  sorry 
to  say  I  have  marched  a  good  many  years  even  beyond 
that.  It  is  a  great  opportunity,  an  opportunity  that 
only  comes  once  in  many  centuries  to  the  children  of 
men.  For  most  generations  sacrifice  comes  in  drab  and 
weariness  of  spirit.  It  comes  to  you  to-day,  and  it 
comes  to-day  to  us  all,  in  the  form  of  the  glow  and  thrill 
of  a  great  movement  for  liberty,  that  impels  millions 
throughout  Europe  to  the  same  noble  end.  It  is  a  great 
war  for  the  emancipation  of  Europe  from  the  thraldom 
of  a  military  caste  which  has  thrown  its  shadows  upon 
two  generations  of  men,  and  is  now  plunging  the  world 
into  a  welter  of  bloodshed  and  death.  Some  have  al- 
ready given  their  lives.  There  are  some  who  have  given 
more  than  their  own  lives ;  they  have  given  the  lives 
of  those  who  are  dear  to  them.  I  honour  their  cour- 
age, and  may  God  be  their  comfort  and  their  strength. 


288  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

But  their  reward  is  at  hand ;  those  who  have  fallen  have 
died  consecrated  deaths.  They  have  taken  their  part  in 
the  making  of  a  new  Europe — a  new  world.  I  can  see 
signs  of  its  coming  in  the  glare  of  the  battlefield. 

The  "New  Patriotism:' 

The  people  will  gain  more  by  this  struggle  in  all  lands 
than  they  comprehend  at  the  present  moment.  It  is  true 
they  will  be  free  of  the  greatest  menace  to  their  free- 
dom. That  is  not  all.  There  is  something  infinitely 
greater  and  more  enduring  which  is  emerging  already 
out  of  this  great  conflict — a  new  patriotism,  richer, 
nobler,  and  more  exalted  than  the  old.  I  see  amongst 
all  classes,  high  and  low,  shedding  themselves  of  selfish- 
ness, a  new  recognition  that  the  honour  of  the  country 
does  not  depend  merely  on  the  maintenance  of  its  glory 
in  the  stricken  field,  but  also  in  protecting  its  homes 
from  distress.  It  is  bringing  a  new  outlook  for  all 
classes.  The  great  flood  of  luxury  and  sloth  which  had 
submerged  the  land  is  receding,  and  a  new  Britain  is 
appearing.  We  can  see  for  the  first  time  the  fundamen- 
tal things  that  matter  in  life,  and  that  have  been  ob- 
scured from  our  vision  by  the  tropical  growth  of  pros- 
perity. 

"The  Vision:' 

May  I  tell  you  in  a  simple  parable  what  I  think  this 
war  is  doing  for  us?  I  know  a  valley  in  North  Wales, 
between  the  mountains  and  the  sea.  It  is  a  beautiful 
valley,  snug,  comfortable,  sheltered  by  the  mountains 
from  all  the  bitter  blasts.  But  it  is  very  enervating, 
and  I  remember  how  the  boys  were  in  the  habit  of  climb- 
ing the  hill  above  the  village  to  have  a  glimpse  of  the 
great  mountains  in  the  distance,  and  to  be  stimulated 


APPENDIX  289 

and  freshened  by  the  breezes  which  came  from  the  hill- 
tops, and  by  the  spectacle  of  their  grandeur.  We  have 
been  living  in  a  sheltered  valley  for  generations.  We 
have  been  too  comfortable  and  too  indulgent,  many, 
perhaps,  too  selfish,  and  the  stem  hand  of  fate  has 
scourged  us  to  an  elevation  where  we  can  see  the  ever- 
lasting things  that  matter  for  a  nation — the  great  peaks 
we  had  forgotten,  of  Honour,  Duty,  Patriotism,  and, 
clad  in  glittering  white,  the  towering  pinnacle  of  Sacri- 
fice pointing  like  a  rugged  finger  to  Heaven.  We  shall 
descend  into  the  valleys  again;  but  as  long  as  the  men 
and  women  of  this  generation  last,  they  will  carry  in 
their  hearts  the  image  of  those  mighty  peaks  whose  foun- 
dations are  not  shaken,  though  Europe  rock  and  sway 
in  the  convulsions  of  a  great  war. 


m. 

THE  RIGHTEOUSNESS   OF   OUR   CAUSE. 

BXTEACTS   FROM  A   SPEECH   DELIVERED  AT  THE  CITY  TEMPLE, 
NOVEMBER   IOtH,    1914. 

«  *  *  *  « 

Britain  Not  Responsible  for  the  War. 

When  this  war  broke  out,  we  were  on  better  terms 
with  Germany  than  we  had  been  for  fifteen  years. 
There  was  not  a  man  in  the  Cabinet  who  thought  that 
war  with  Germany  was  a  possibility  under  present  con- 
ditions. Our  relations  had  improved.  There  was  not  a 
diplomatic  cloud  over  the  German  Ocean.  We  har- 
boured no  designs  against  Germany:  we  meditated  no 
quarrel  with  Germany:  as  the  Lord  liveth,  we  had  en- 
gaged in  no  conspiracy  against  Germany.  We  were  not 
envying  her  her  territories;  we  sought  not  a  yard  of 
her  colonies.  We  are  in  this  war  from  motives  of  purest 
chivalry  to  defend  the  weak. 

France  and  Russia  Not  Responsible 

Britain  is  not  responsible  for  this  war,  and  thank 
God  for  that.  Who  is  responsible  ?  Not  France.  There 
had  been  a  General  Election  in  France  just  a  few 
months  before  this  war  broke  out,  and  the  pacifist  party 
gained  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  triumphs  ever 
achieved  in  any  country  against  the  most  powerful  poli- 
tical combination  that  had  ever  federated  against  it. 

290 


APPENDIX  291 

The  Government  of  France  was  essentially  a  pacifist 
Government.  The  French  people  abhorred  the  idea  of 
war,  and  the  Government  shared  to  the  full  that  abhor- 
rence. Not  France  !  Not  Russia !  Why,  it  is  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  German  case  that  Russia  would  not  be 
ready  for  war  for  three  years.  That  is  their  boast. 
That  is  why  they  attacked  her.  Then  Russia  could  not 
have  provoked  war. 

You  can  read,  and  read  again,  the  despatches  of  our 
Ambassador  at  Vienna.  The  quarrel  was  ostensibly  be- 
tween Austria  and  Russia.  Sir  Edward  Grey  laboured 
anxiously  for  peace ;  no  man  could  have  worked  harder 
than  he  did  for  peace ;  and  if  there  is  blood  shed,  there 
is  not  a  stain  upon  Sir  Edward  Grey.  He  suggested  a 
European  Conference  to  discuss  these  matters.  Ger- 
many said:  "Do  you  not  think  it  would  be  better  for 
Austria  and  Russia  to  talk  the  matter  over  amongst 
themselves?  We  are  only  suggesting  the  best  way  of 
settling  the  dispute. ' '  Sir  Edward  Grey  said  : ' '  Yes ;  that 
seems  a  very  sensible  idea."  Russia  and  Austria  met. 
They  were  actually  discussing  matters  amongst  them- 
selves, and  getting  on  admirably' — so  admirably  that 
Germany  got  alarmed,  declared  war  on  Russia,  and  al- 
though the  dispute  was  ostensibly  between  Russia  and 
Austria,  it  was  only  five  days  afterwards  that  you  had 
war  between  Russia  and  Austria,  and  that  was  because 
Germany  had  already  started. 

The  Origin  of  the  War. 

Not  Russia!  Belgium?  Or  Serbia?  Does  the  poor 
victim  of  a  bird  of  prey  really  commence  the  hostilities  ? 

Now,  looking  back,  you  can  see  what  happened.  You 
can  see  Austria  hovering  like  a  hawk  over  the  Balkan 
fields,  and,  if  you  are  country  bred,  you  know  what  that 


292  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

means.  You  know  it  will  not  be  long  before  it  swoops 
down  and  some  poor  helpless  creature  will  be  quivering 
in  its  talons.  The  vulture  has  been  hanging  over  Bel- 
gium for  some  time.  We  know  that  now.  It  has  made 
a  mistake.  It  soared  so  high  that  even  the  most  discern- 
ing falcon  might  have  made  a  mistake.  It  thought  it 
was  pouncing  on  a  rabbit,  and  it  fell  on  a  hedgehog, 
and  has  been  bleeding  and  sore  ever  since.  We  know 
now  what  it  would  have  been  malevolent  to  suspect  be- 
fore, that  the  counsellors  of  Germany,  while  professing 
peace  and  pretending  good  will,  in  cold  blood,  with 
malice  aforethought,  had  intended,  planned,  organized, 
wholesale  murder  of  peaceable  neighbours,  and  had  even 
arranged  the  date  to  suit  themselves,  a  date  when  they 
thought  their  neighbours  would  be  caught  unprepared 
to  defend  their  lives  and  their  homes.  If  this  wanton 
deed  of  premeditated  treachery  against  humanity  is  to 
pass  unchallenged  by  the  nations  of  the  world,  then  let 
us  admit  that  civilisation  is  a  failure,  that  the  sceptre 
of  right  is  broken,  and  that  force — brute  force — is  once 
more  enthroned  amongst  the  nations. 

Our  Part  in  the  War  to  he  Justified. 

It  may  be  said  it  is  not  enough  to  prove  that  Germany 
is  in  the  wrong.  We  have  to  justify  Great  Britain  in 
embarking  on  a  gigantic  war  which  will  tax  to  the  ut- 
most her  resources  of  material,  money,  men,  and  leave 
her  impoverished  at  the  end  of  the  struggle. 

We  all  knew  the  consequences  would  be  tremendous. 
For  the  moment  the  consequences  are  incalculable ;  so 
much  so  that  we  had  no  right  to  go  into  this  war  without 
the  most  overwhelming  reasons.  The  sacrifice  of  human 
life  is  appalling.  The  suffering  it  is  impossible  to  esti- 
mate.   The  waste  is  so  prodigious  that,  viewing  it  even 


APPENDIX  293 

as  I  do  from  day  to  day,  and  have  done  for  over  three 
months,  it  has  not  ceased  to  shock.  The  wealth  har- 
vested by  years  of  peace  and  hard  and  anxious  toil  is 
thrown  into  the  flames  of  war,  to  intensify  their  con- 
suming fury.  If  anyone  says  we  ought  not  to  have 
entered  into  this  war  without  the  most  overpowering 
reasons,  I  am  entirely  with  him. 

The  Doctrine  of  Extreme  Pacifists. 

There  are  men  who  maintain  that  war  is  not  justifi- 
able under  any  conditions.  There  are  men  who  main- 
tain that  even  if  your  house  is  attacked,  if  your  country 
is  invaded  and  threatened  with  oppression,  if  you  had 
a  second  William  the  Conqueror  landing -in  this  island, 
destroying  the  Constitution,  imposing  his  own  language, 
his  own  laws,  and  his  own  rule  upon  this  country,  ravag- 
ing and  destroying  as  he  has  done  in  Belgium — there  are 
men  who  carry  their  doctrine  so  far  as  to  say  that,  even 
under  those  conditions,  you  ought  not  to  use  a  deadly 
weapon  to  defend  yourself  or  your  homes  or  your  coun- 
try. I  have  great  respect  for  them ;  but  I  am  afraid  that 
I  shall  never  be  able  to  attain  in  this  world  to  that  alti- 
tude of  idealism. 

But  may  I  just  say  one  or  two  words  about  that? 

It  was  not  the  creed  of  the  Puritan  Fathers.  I  main- 
tain it  is  not  the  principle  of  the  Christian  Faith.  That 
deprecates  revenge.  It  deprecates  retaliation.  But  I 
never  heard  a  saying  of  the  Master's  which  would  con- 
demn men  for  striking  a  blow  for  right,  justice,  or  the 
protection  of  the  weak. 

"To  Precipitate  Ideals  is  to  Retard  Their  Advent." 

And  may  I  also  say  that  to  carry  those  principles  too 
far  is  just  the  way  to  destroy  the  possibility  of  their 


294  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

ever  becoming  realised?  To  precipitate  ideals  is  to  re- 
tard their  advent. 

We  are  all  looking  forward  to  the  time  when  swords 
shall  be  beaten  into  ploughshares  and  spears  into  prun- 
ing hooks,  and  nation  shall  not  rise  up  against  nation, 
and  there  shall  be  no  more  war.  But  as  long  as  there 
are  nations  and  empires  that  beat  ploughshares  into 
swords  and  pruning  hooks  into  spears  in  order  to  prey 
upon  nations  of  ploughers  and  pruners  living  alongside 
them,  to  disarm  would  be  to  delay  the  period  that  we  are 
all  praying  for. 

The  surest  method  of  establishing  the  reign  of  peace 
on  earth  is  by  making  the  way  of  the  transgressor  of 
the  peace  of  nations  too  hard  for  the  rulers  of  men  to 
tread. 

Defending  a  Neighbour  From  a  Bully. 

Most  men — every  real  man — would  defend  his  own 
home,  his  own  life  and  liberty,  and  the  life,  liberty,  and 
the  honour  of  those  who  have  been  committed  to  his  care. 
Yes ;  but  supposing  that  man  saw  a  poor  little  neighbour, 
a  neighbour  he  had  sworn  to  protect,  and  whose  home 
was  broken  into  by  a  hulking  bully,  who  robbed  him  of 
his  goods,  attacked  him,  his  wife  and  his  children, 
burnt,  murdered,  and  maimed — I  ask  you  what  manner 
of  man  would  he  be  who  looked  on  calmly  without  rush- 
ing in  to  help  him  with  any  weapon  at  his  hand?  It 
would  be  a  piece  of  heartless  poltroonery.  Britain  has 
never  been  guilty  of  that. 

Germany's  Demand  on  Belgium. 

"Why  was  Belgium  so  maltreated?  What  is  her  of- 
fence? She  had  refused  to  allow  Germany  to  march 
through  her  territories  to  attack  a  good  neighbour  of 


APPENDIX  295 

Belgium's.  France  and  Belgium  were  very  good  neigh- 
bours. They  are  kinsmen  in  race  and  religion,  and  to 
a  large  extent  in  language ;  and  France  was  fully 
shielded  and  protected  on  every  frontier  except  that 
which  faced  Belgium.  Germany 's  demand  was  a  demand 
put  forward  in  defiance  of  a  treaty  obligation  with  Bel- 
gium, to  give  facilities  to  Germany  to  drive  a  dagger 
into  the  heart  of  her  good  neighbour  France  through 
her  unprotected  side.  A  meaner,  shabbier,  more  cow- 
ardly request  was  never  addressed  to  anyone. 

Belgium  was  to  be  nominally  neutral.  But  Belgian 
roads,  Belgian  rivers  and  railways,  were  to  take  sides; 
and  in  modern  warfare  railways  are  more  formidable 
weapons  than  rifles.  That  was  the  demand.  It  is  as  if 
a  man  came  to  you  and  said :  "I  want  to  kill  your  next- 
door  neighbour,  but  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  in  at  his 
front  door,  and  his  back  door  is  barred  and  bolted,  or 
rather  the  back  door  is  bolted,  and  there  is  a  very  for- 
midable policeman  patrolling  the  front  door.  It  would 
take  us  too  long  to  beat  down  those  bars  and  bolts,  and 
we  want  to  get  at  him  before  he  is  ready  to  defend  him- 
self. I  have  been  making  ready  to  attack;  he  has  not 
been  making  ready  to  defend ;  I  want  to  take  advantage 
of  that,  and  you  must  help  me.  It  is  a  small  request. 
Surely  you  will  see  it  is  reasonable !  All  I  want  is  that 
you  should  allow  me  to  get  at  him  through  your  garden. 
I  will  see  all  the  damage  is  repaired.  I  will  restore  the 
garden  to  you  exactly  as  I  found  it.  I  will  compensate 
you  for  any  injury  done  to  the  flower  beds,  and  if  any 
of  your  children  happen  to  be  killed  or  injured  in  the 
scuffle,  well,  I  will  pay  you  a  handsome  compensation 
for  that." 


296  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

The  Agony  of  Belgium. 

Belgium  has  refused  to  bring  that  dishonour  on  her 
national  reputation.  She  has  preferred  to  face  the  pros- 
pect of  national  annihilation ;  and  every  decent  man  and 
woman  throughout  the  civilised  world  will  applaud  the 
nobility  of  her  action.  We  know  what  she  is  enduring 
at  this  present  moment.  It  is  too  pitiful  a  story  to  re- 
late. We  are  witnessing  the  agony  of  a  brave  little  peo- 
ple suffering  for  the  right.  Their  cities  and  their  vil- 
lages are  destroyed,  their  population  scattered. 

A  Belgian  statesman  told  me  that  there  were  three 
times  as  many  old  people,  women,  and  children  destroyed 
in  Belgium  as  there  were  soldiers  fallen  in  her  gallant 
army.  They  have  paid  ransom  to  Germany.  They  have 
given  their  goods  to  Germany;  but  that  has  not  saved 
them. 

You  will  remember  when  Alaric  the  Goth  went  to 
Rome,  and  when  he  was  about  to  take  it,  a  deputation  of 
the  besieged  citizens  visited  him.  He  put  his  demands 
very  high,  and  they  said  to  him,  ' '  If  such,  0  King,  are 
your  demands,  what  do  you  intend  to  leave  us?"  The 
haughty  barbarian  replied,  "Your  lives."  He  was  a 
better  man  than  his  cultured  successor.  Three  times  as 
many  helpless  people  slaughtered  by  this  great  cultured 
empire !  They  have  robbed  them  of  their  food  to  main- 
tain their  armies.  They  are  now  sending  begging  to 
America,  saying,  ' '  You  feed  them. ' '  It  was  not  America 
that  devastated  their  lands ! 

There  are  multitudes  dying  of  hunger  there,  under  the 
banner  of  this  great  proud  empire.  I  wish  this  were  all. 
I  cannot  repeat  all  the  authenticated  stories  that  are 
told  of  German  rule  in  Belgium.  I  wish  they  were  not 
true  for  the  honour  of  civilisation,  for  the  honour  of 
humanity. 


APPENDIX  297 

The  Judgment  of  Cromwell. 

Cromwell  once  said:  "There  is  some  contentment  in 
the  hand  by  which  a  man  falls.  It  is  some  satisfaction, 
if  a  Commonwealth  must  fall,  that  it  perish  by  men, 
and  not  by  the  hand  of  persons  differing  little  from 
beasts."  That  is  Cromwell's  judgment  on  the  devasta- 
tion of  Belgium,  and  on  this  savagery  perpetrated  on  a 
harmless  little  country  by  its  big  neighbour,  who  had 
solemnly  passed  her  word  to  protect  it.  There  must  be 
a  revised  version  of  one  passage  of  the  Scriptures  in 
Belgium.  It  must  be  revised  for  Belgian  use  and  read : 
"Who  is  thy  neighbour?  Thy  neighbour  is  he  who 
falls  on  thee  like  a  thief,  strips  thee  and  wounds  thee, 
and  leaves  thee  half  dead."  That  is  Germany's  version 
of  duty  to  a  neighbour.  If  Britain,  after  passing  her 
word,  had  left  that  little  country  bleeding  on  the  road- 
side, without  attempting  to  rescue  her,  the  infamy  of 
Germany  would  have  been  shared  by  the  British  Empire. 


....  "After  That  the  Judgment." 

I  hope  that  within  the  next  few  days  there  will  be  a 
call  for  another  large  contingent  of  men.  I  should  like 
to  see  each  county  called  upon  for  its  quota — that  every 
town,  every  city,  and  every  area  should  know  what  is 
expected  of  it.  All  our  rights  and  our  liberties  have 
been  won  by  men  who  counted  their  lives  as  nothing  so 
long  as  their  country  and  their  faith  were  free.  In  the 
days  when  we  were  winning  the  battles  of  religious  free- 
dom in  this  country,  there  were  shirkers,  but  their  cow- 
ardice did  not  save  them  from  the  tomb.  It  is  appointed 
that  men  should  die  once,  and  after  that  the  judgment. 
Brave  men  die,  but  they  need  not  fear  the  judgment. 


THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

I  think  we  are  too  ready  to  scoff  at  creeds  which  prom- 
ise the  glories  of  their  paradise  to  those  who  die  for  the 
cause  or  for  the  country  they  are  devoted  to.  It  is  but 
a  crude  expression  of  a  truth  which  is  the  foundation 
of  every  great  faith,  that  sacrifice  is  ever  the  surest 
road  to  redemption. 

It  is  appointed  that  cowards  shall  die,  but  after  that 
the  judgment.  They  fall  into  the  unhonoured  grave  of 
the  men  who  have  never  given  up  anything  which  is 
precious  to  them,  to  their  country,  their  religion  or  their 
kind.    After  that  the  judgment! 


Justice  the  Greatest  Asset. 

The  fundamental  error  of  the  German  calculations  is 
becoming  more  and  more  manifest  every  day.  They  are 
beginning  to  realise  that  justice  is  the  greatest  of  all 
military  assets.  The  wrongful  invasion  of  Belgium — 
they  admitted  it  was  wrong — the  trampling  on  the 
rights  of  a  small  nationality,  has  become  a  military 
weakness  to  them.  That  is  manifest  now,  and  it  is  be- 
coming more  manifest  day  by  day. 

In  a  long  struggle  it  is  the  heart  that  tells,  and  injus- 
tice weakens  the  heart  of  nations.  They  cannot  endure  ; 
and  this  country  has  demonstrated — and  the  war  will 
be  waged  in  vain  if  it  does  not  demonstrate  it  even  more 
clearly — that  the  justice  of  a  nation's  cause  is  in  itself 
a  military  equipment  of  the  first  magnitude  and  im- 
portance. 

Sometimes  when  I  read  the  reports  I  feel  perplexed 
and  baffled.  I  see  accounts  of  advances  here  and  re- 
tirements there — of  victories  in  this  spot  and  mishaps 
in  another.     But  through  it  all,  I  think  I  can  see  the 


APPENDIX  299 

hand  of  justice  gradually,  slowly,  but  certainly  grasp- 
ing the  victory. 

* '  Watchman,  what  of  the  night  ? "  It  is  dark,  and  the 
cries  of  rage  and  anguish  rend  the  air,  but  the  golden 
morrow  is  at  hand,  when  the  valiant  youth  of  Britain 
will  return  from  the  stricken  fields  of  Europe,  where 
their  heroism  has  proclaimed  to  the  world  that  justice 
is  the  best  sustenance  for  valour,  and  that  their  valour 
has  won  a  lasting  triumph  for  justice. 


IV. 

A  HOLY  WAR. 

kxtracts  from  a  speech  delivered  at  bangor^  february 
28th,  1915. 


If  Germany  Were  to  Win. 

What  does  it  mean  were  Germany  to  win  ?  It  means 
world-power  for  the  worst  elements  in  Germany,  not  for 
Germany.  The.  Germans  are  an  intelligent  race,  they 
are  undoubtedly  a  cultivated  race,  they  are  a  race  of 
men  who  have  been  responsible  for  great  ideas  in  this 
world.  But  this  would  mean  the  dominance  of  the  worst 
elements  amongst  them.  If  you  think  I  am  exaggerat- 
ing, just  read  for  the  moment  extracts  from  the  articles 
in  the  newspapers  which  are  in  the  ascendancy  now  in 
Germany  about  the  settlement  which  they  expect  after 
this  war.  I  am  sorry  to  say  I  am  stating  nothing  but 
the  bare  brutal  truth.  I  do  not  say  that  the  Kaiser  will 
sit  on  the  Throne  of  England  if  he  should  win.  I  do 
not  say  that  he  will  impose  his  laws  and  his  language 
on  this  country  as  did  William  the  Conqueror.  I  do 
not  say  that  you  will  hear  the  noisy  tramp  of  the  goose 
step  in  the  cities  of  the  Empire.  I  do  not  say  that 
Death's  Head  Hussars  will  be  patrolling  our  highways. 
I  do  not  say  that  a  visitor,  let  us  say,  to  Aberdaron  will 
have  to  ask  a  Pomeranian  policeman  the  best  way  to 
Hell's  Mouth.    That  is  not  what  I  mean.    What  I  mean 

300 


APPENDIX  301 

is  that  if  Germany  were  triumphant  in  this  war  she 
would  practically  be  the  dictator  of  the  international 
policy  of  the  world.  Her  spirit  would  be  in  the  ascen- 
dant. Her  doctrines  would  be  in  the  ascendant;  by  the 
sheer  power  of  her  will  she  would  bend  the  minds  of  men 
in  her  own  fashion.  Germanism  in  its  later  and  worst 
form  would  be  the  inspiriting  thought  and  philosophy 
of  the  hour. 

France  after  1870, 

Do  you  remember  what  happened  to  France  after 
1870  ?  The  German  armies  left  France,  but  all  the  same 
for  years  after  that,  and  while  France  was  building  up 
her  army,  she  stood  in  cowering  terror  of  this  monster. 
Even  after  her  great  army  was  built  France  was  op- 
pressed with  a  constant  anxiety  as  to  what  might  hap- 
pen. Germany  dismissed  her  ministers.  Had  it  not  been 
for  the  intervention  of  Queen  Victoria  in  1874,  the 
French  army  would  never  have  been  allowed  to  be  re- 
constructed, and  France  would  simply  have  been  the 
humble  slave  of  Germany  to  this  hour.  What  a  condi- 
tion for  a  country !  And  now  France  is  fighting,  not 
so  much  to  recover  her  lost  provinces;  she  is  fighting  to 
recover  her  self-respect  and  her  national  independence ; 
she  is  fighting  to  shake  off  this  nightmare  that  has  been 
on  her  soul  for  over  a  generation — a  France  with  Ger- 
many constantly  meddling,  bullying,  and  interfering. 
And  that  is  what  would  happen  if  Russia  were  trampled 
upon,  France  broken,  Britain  disarmed.  We  should  be 
left  without  any  means  to  defend  ourselves.  We  might 
have  a  navy  that  would  enable  us,  perhaps,  to  resent  an 
insult  from  Nicaragua,  we  might  have  just  enough 
troops,  perhaps,  to  confront  the  Mad  Mullah — I  mean 
the  African  specimen. 

Where  would  the  chivalrous  country  be  to  step  in  to 


302  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

protect  us  as  we  protected  France  in  1874?  America? 
If  countries  like  Russia  and  France,  with  their  huge 
armies,  and  the  most  powerful  navy  in  the  world  could 
not  face  this  terrible  military  machine,  how  can  America 
step  in?  It  would  be  more  than  America  could  do  to 
defend  her  own  interests  on  her  own  continent  if  Ger- 
many is  triumphant.  Ah !  but  what  manner  of  Germany 
would  we  be  subordinate  to?  There  has  been  a  struggle 
going  on  in  Germany  for  over  thirty  years  between  its 
best  and  its  worst  elements.  It  is  like  that  great  strug- 
gle which  is  depicted  in  one  of  Wagner's  great  operas 
between  the  good  and  the  evil  spirit  for  the  possession 
of  the  man's  soul.  That  great  struggle  has  been  going 
on  in  Germany  for  thirty  or  forty  years.  At  each  suc- 
cessive General  Election  the  better  elements  seemed  to 
be  getting  the  upper  hand,  and  I  do  not  mind  saying  I 
was  one  of  those  who  believed  they  were  going  to  win. 
I  thought  they  were  going  to  snatch  the  soul  of  Ger- 
many :  it  is  worth  saving ;  it  is  a  great,  powerful  soul, 
and  I  thought  they  were  going  to  save  it.  Then  a  dead 
military  caste  said,  "We  will  have  none  of  this,"  and 
they  plunged  Europe  into  seas  of  blood.  Hope  was 
again  shattered. 

"Harnessed  to  the  Chariot  of  Destruction." 

Those  worst  elements  will  emerge  triumphant  out  of 
this  war  if  Germany  wins.  We  shall  be  vassals,  not  to 
the  best  Germany,  not  to  the  Germany  of  sweet  songs 
and  inspiring,  noble  thought — not  to  the  Gennany  of 
science  consecrated  to  the  service  of  man,  not  to  the  Ger- 
many of  a  virile  philosophy  that  helped  to  break  the 
shackles  of  superstition  in  Europe — ^not  to  that  Ger- 
many, but  to  a  Germany  that  talked  through  the  rau- 
cous voice  of  Krupp's  artillery,  a  Germany  that  has 


APPENDIX  303 

harnessed  science  to  the  chariot  of  destruction  and  of 
death,  the  Germany  of  a  philosophy  of  force,  violence, 
and  bnitality,  a  Germany  that  would  quench  every 
spark  of  freedom  either  in  its  own  land  or  any  other  in 
rivera  of  blood.  I  make  no  apology  on  a  day  conse- 
crated to  the  greatest  sacrifice  for  coming  here  to  preach 
a  holy  war  against  that. 

War  is  a  time  of  sacrifice  and  of  service.  Some  can 
render  one  service,  some  another,  some  here  and  some 
there.  Some  can  render  great  assistance,  others  but 
little.  There  is  not  one  who  cannot  help  in  some  meas- 
ure, even  if  it  be  only  by  enduring  cheerfully  his  share 
of  the  discomfort. 

In  ilie  old  Welsh  legends  there  is  a  story  of  a  man 
who  was  given  a  series  of  what  appeared  to  be  impos- 
sible tasks  to  perform  ere  he  could  reach  the  desires  of 
his  heart.  Amongst  other  things  he  had  to  do  was  to 
recover  every  grain  of  seed  that  had  been  sown  in  a 
large  field  and*  bring  it  all  in  without  one  missing  by 
sunset.  He  came  to  an  anthill  and  won  all  the  hearts  and 
enlisted  the  sympathies  of  the  industrious  little  people. 
They  spread  over  the  field,  and  before  sundown  the  seed 
was  all  in  except  one  grain,  and  as  the  sun  was  setting 
over  the  western  skies  a  lame  ant  hobbled  along  with 
that  grain  also.  Some  of  us  have  youth  and  vigour  and 
suppleness  of  limb ;  some  of  us  are  crippled  with  years 
or  infirmities,  and  we  are  at  best  but  lame  ants.  But 
we  can  all  limp  along  with  some  share  of  our  country's 
burden,  and  thus  help  her  in  this  terrible  hour  to  win 
the  desire  of  her  heart. 


V. 

"FIGHT    ON!" 

BPEBCH  DELIVERED  AT  BANGOE,   AT  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  ROYAL 
NATIONAL   EISTEDDFOD,   AUGUST  5tH,   1915. 

No  Eisteddfod  was  ever  before  held  under  such,  a 
cloud.  It  is  indeed  a  terrible  time.  I  am  frankly  glad 
that  you  are  holding  the  Eisteddfod  this  year.  I  did 
not  relish  the  idea  of  the  Welsh  Muse  being  placed  in  an 
internment  camp  with  barbed  wire  to  keep  her  from 
getting  out  till  the  end  of  the  war.  She  is  not  an  alien 
enemy,  but  a  native  of  the  hills.  She  is  not  a  Germ.an 
spy,  but  a  bonny  lass  from  the  Welsh  glens,  and  I  am 
delighted  that  you  have  set  her  free  once  more.  I  have 
come  here  from  the  work  of  war  in  order  to  hear  the 
harp  of  the  bards  above  the  shriek  of  shells. 

"Is  It  Peace?" 

I  observe  that  you  have  omitted  to  ask  the  old-estab- 
lished question,  "Is  it  peace?"  Everywhere  sounds  of 
war  trumpets  rend  the  air.  From  sea  to  sea  the  land 
of  Britain  trembles  with  the  myriads  preparing  for  war. 
East  and  West  and  North  and  South,  you  hear  the  ring 
of  the  hammers  and  the  whistle  of  the  steel  lathes  fash- 
ioning weapons  of  war.  On  quiet  nights  from  my  cot- 
tage in  Surrey  I  can  hear  the  sound  of  the  cannon  fired 
in  anger  on  the  ruddied  fields  of  death  in  France.  I 
know  with  horror  the  work  that  is  going  on,  and  as  I 

304 


APPENDIX  805 

hear  the  old  praj'er  of  the  Gorsedd  comes  to  my  lips, 
"0  lesu,  nad  ganwith" — "O  Jesu,  prevent  wrong!" 

"Is  it  peace ? "  No !  Why  not ?  Because  an  unclean 
spirit  has  possessed  the  rulers  of  a  great  nation.  Now 
and  again  in  the  history  of  the  world  its  peoples  have 
had  to  fight  in  order  to  win — sometimes  in  order  to 
retain  those  elementary  rights  which  lift  men  above 
beasts  of  the  field — Justice,  Liberty,  Righteousness.  If 
Right  is  worsted  in  this  conflict,  civilisation  will  be  put 
back  for  generations.  If  Right  triumphs,  mankind  takes 
a  long  leap  onward  on  the  road  to  progress.  This  is  one 
of  those  periods. 

"When  Justice  is  Menaced." 

I  am  proud  to  know  Wales  has  flang  its  whole 
strength  into  the  struggle  for  humanity.  We  have  a 
great  army  already  in  the  battlefield.  We  have  a  still 
greater  army  ready  and  eager  to  support  their  comrades 
in  the  field.  There  was  a  time  when  it  seemed  as  if  the 
military  spirit  of  Wales  had  vanished  into  the  mists  of 
the  past.  Some  of  us  thought  that  the  religious  revivals 
of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  had  broken 
the  fighting  spirit  of  our  race.  No  real  religion  has  ever 
yet  broken  a  nation's  spirit.  It  disciplines  its  strength, 
it  elevates  its  purpose.  Such  a  nation  does  not  dissipate 
its  power  in  envious  anger  and  rage  against  its  neigh- 
bours, but  when  justice  is  menaced  that  nation  becomes 
more  formidable  than  ever. 

"Welsh  Martial  Spirit  Not  Dead." 

There  was  a  time  in  the  last  200  years  when  we  could 
hardly  summon  the  material  for  three  regiments  to  the 
flag.     To-day  you  have  100,000  men  who  have  rallied 


806  THE  GREAT  CRUSADE 

to  the  flag  from  the  hills  and  valleys  of  their  native 
land.  "We  have  a  greater  army  from  Wales  alone  than 
Wellington  commanded  at  Waterloo,  and  they  are  just 
as  good  men  every  one  of  them.  And  they  have  not 
ceased  coming  yet.  More  and  more  men  are  still  gath- 
ering in  the  camping  ground.  As  they  learn  in  the  re- 
motest hovels  that  liberty  is  in  danger,  they  come  along 
to  defend  her  against  the  violence  of  the  oppressor.  Our 
Welsh  martial  spirit  was  not  dead — it  was  not  even 
slumbering — it  was  simply  hiding  in  its  caves  among 
the  hills  until  the  call  came  from  above.  War  after 
war  swept  past  it  without  rousing  its  old  energies.  At 
last  it  has  come  forth  fully  armed  for  battle  and  might- 
ier than  ever. 

Wales  and  a  New  Charter  of  Liberty. 

Welsh  courage  has  manifested  itself  in  this  war  as 
never  before  in  the  history  of  Wales.  When  Magna 
Charta  was  wrested  from  a  tyrannical  king,  there  was 
a  Welsh  contingent  among  the  forces  that  achieved  that 
victory  for  English  freedom,  and  there  are  Welsh  names 
among  the  signatories  of  the  potent  document.  When 
the  charter  of  European  liberty  is  drawn  up  after  this 
war — the  charter  that  will  settle  the  fate  of  mankind 
on  many  continents  for  ages  to  come — it  will  be  a  source 
of  pride  to  us  that  our  little  country  contributed  such 
a  large  and  efficient  contingent  to  the  army  that  estab- 
lished a  new  charter  for  human  liberty. 

The  UnshacTding  of  Russia. 

I  have  no  doubt  that,  however  long  victory  may  tarry, 
it  will  ultimately  come.  We  may  have  to  wait  for  the 
dawn.    The  eastern  sky  is  dark  and  lowering ;  the  stars 


APPENDIX  307 

have  been  clouded  over.  I  regard  that  stormy  horizon 
with  emxiety,  but  with  no  dread.  To-day  I  can  see  the 
colour  of  a  new  hope  beginning  to  empurple  the  sky. 
The  enemy  in  their  victorious  march  know  not  what 
they  are  doing.  Let  them  beware,  for  they  are  un- 
shackling Russia.  "With  their  monster  artillery  they  are 
shattering  the  rusty  bars  that  fettered  the  strength  of 
the  people  of  Russia.  You  can  see  them  shaking  their 
powerful  limbs  free  from  the  stifling  debris,  and  pre- 
paring for  the  conflict  with  a  new  spirit.  I  repeat,  the 
enemy  know  not  what  they  are  achieving  for  their  ap- 
parent victim.  Austria  and  Prussia  are  doing  for  Rus- 
sia to-day  what  their  military  ancestors  effected  just  as 
unwittingly  for  France.  They  are  hammering  a  sword 
that  will  destroy  them,  and  are  freeing  a  great  nation 
to  wield  it  with  a  more  potent  stroke  and  a  inightier 
sweep  than  it  ever  yet  commanded. 

"Fight  On!" 

For  us,  we  must  fight  on  or  for  ever  sink  as  a  people 
into  impotent  obscurity.  Britain  has  another  task.  It 
is  becoming  clearer  and  our  own  share  of  it  is  becoming 
greater  as  the  months  roll  past.  It  is  to  see  that  the 
suffering  and  the  loss  shall  not  be  in  vain.  The  fields 
of  Europe  are  being  rent  by  the  ploughshares  of  war. 
The  verdure  of  the  old  civilisation  is  vanishing  in  the 
desolating  upheaval  of  the  conflict.  Let  us  see  to  It  that 
wheat  and  not  tares  are  sown  in  the  bleeding  soil,  and 
*'in  due  season  we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not." 


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